
-jT*\ WITH 

Faces 






A FIELD BGDK for BOYS and GIRLS 

BY 

EDITH DUNHAM 



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FIFTY FLOWER FRIENDS WITH 
FAMILIAR FACES 




LADY'S SLIPPER 




(f 



FIFTY 
FLOWER FRENDS 

WITH 

FAMILIARFACES 

Afield 'Sookfor 

EDITH DUNHAM 

WITH FULL-PAGE JM TEXT 
ILLUSTRATIONS BJ 



; -~c^vkv 



\\U6 




UBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Coole? Received 

APP 29 1907 

<T"CoDyn«fM Entry 
fxA . /3,/f o/ ( 
CLASS A XXc„No. 

COPY B. 






Published, April, 1907. 



Copyright, 1907, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co. 



All Higfits Reserved. 



Fifty Flower Friends. 



Norixjooti $ress 

J. S. Cushing & Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction 11 

Dandelion (Taraxacum Taraxacum, B. fy B.; Taraxacum 

officinale, Gray 1 ) 16 

Trailing Arbutus (Epigoza repens) .... 22 

Bluets (Houstonia ccerulea) 28 

Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) 32 

Dutchman's Breeches (Bicuculla Cucullaria, B. Sf B. ; 

Dicentra Cucullaria, Gray) 38 

Bird-foot Violet (Viola pedata) . . . .42 

Winter Cress (Barbarea stricta, B. fy B.; Barbarea vul- 
garis, Gray) ........ 46 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit (Arisozma triphyllum) ... 50 

Barberry (Berberis vulgaris) 56 

Pitcher Plant (Sarracenia purpurea) .... 60 

Wild Lupine (Lupinus perennis) 64 

Oxeye or White Daisy (Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum) 68 
Mountain Laurel (Kalmia latifolia) . •. . .74 

Celandine (Chelidonium majus) 80 

Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) .... 84 

Blue Flag (Iris versicolor) 88 

i " B. & B." denotes Britton and Brown as authority; "Gray" 
denotes Gray's Botany. 

5 



6 CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirtd) .... 94 

Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum biflorum) .... 98 

St. John's Wort {Hypericum perforatum) . . . 102 

Wild Orange-Red Lily (Lilium Philadelphicum) . . 106 
Dogbane (Apocynum androscemifolium) . . . .110 
Water-Lily (Castalia odorata, B. 6f B. ; Nymphcea 

odorata, Gray) 114 

Fireweed (Chamamerion angustifolium, B. Sf B.; Epilo- 

bium angustifolium, Gray) . . . . . .118 

Milkwort (Poly gala viridescens, B. 8f B.; Poly gala san- 

guinea, Gray) 122 

Wild Carrot (Daucus carota) 126 

Bouncing Bet (Saponaria officinalis) .... 130 

Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) .... 134 

Indian Pipe (Monotropa uniflora) 138 

Milkweed (Asclepias Syriaca, B. 8f B.; Asclepias Cornuti, 

Gray) 142 

Wild Morning Glory (Convolvulus sepium) . . 148 

Mullein (Verbascum Thapsus) 152 

Butter-and-Eggs (Linaria Linaria, B. 8f B. ; Linaria 

vulgaris, Gray) 156 

Pickerel-Weed (Pontederia cordata) .... 160 

Orange Hawkweed (Hieracium aurantiacum) . . 164 

White Sweet Clover (Melilotus alba) .... 168 

Yarrow (Achillea Millefolium) 172 

White Alder (Clethra alnifolia) 178 

Knotweed (Polygonum Pennsylvanicum) .... 182 

Wild Mint (Mentha Canadensis) . . . . . 186 

Dodder (Cuscuta Gronovii) 190 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Partridge Pea (Cassia Chamcecrista) . . . .194 
Jewel Weed (Impatiens biflora, B. &f B. ; Impatiens fulva, 

' Gray) 198 

Hardhack (Spircea tomentosa) 204 

Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) ... . . . 210 

Chicory (Cichorium Intybus) 214 

Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinal'^) .... 218 

Swamp Rose Mallow (Hibiscus Moscheutos) . . . 222 

Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) . . . 226 
Lady's Tresses (Gyrostachys cemua,B. fy B. ; Spiranthes 

cernua, Gray) 230 

Fringed Gentian (Gentiana crinita) .... 236 



FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS 

Lady's Slipper (Page 84) .... Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Columbine 34 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit 52/ 

Mountain Laurel 76- 

Blue Flag 90 y 

Black-eyed Susan 96 

Wild Orange-Red Lily 108 

Butter-amd-Eggs 158 ' 

Orange Hawkweed . . . . . . . 166 

Hardhack 206 

Cardinal Flower 220 

Fringed Gentian 238 



INTRODUCTION 

WHEN, WHEKE, AND HOW? 

Who painted the yellow buttercup 
And the daisy's shining heart ? 
The sun, with his golden pencil 
And hand of magic art ? 
Then, did the little cloudlets 
Stoop with their misty white, 
And bring a dress for the snowdrop, 
And fringe for the daisy bright ? 

How did the pink anemone, 

And the purple, find their hue ? 

Are they the dainty colors 

Of the earliest morning dew ? 

And the stately scarlet lily — 

Where did it catch its glow ? 

Over there in the gleaming west 

When the sun was shining low ? 
11 



12 INTRODUCTION 

And all the buds and grasses ; 

Look at their tender green : 

Did ever you see such dresses 

Worn by a fairy queen ? 

Where did the brushes come from 

That daintily touched -them so ? 

Straight, do you think, from Paradise ? 

Where else could they ever grow ? 

— Sydney Dayre. 

When this book was first planned, it 
was the intention of the author to write 
simply a series of sketches which would 
bring before boys and girls a few flowers 
more or less w T ell known, and enable them 
to identify the plants for themselves. In 
these sketches some facts about each 
flower were stated, but it was intended 
to bring out more the personality of 
these friends in the plant world, and the 
locality in which each would be found, 



INTRODUCTION 13 

than to give an actual description of the 
flowers. As the work grew, however, it 
seemed better to add an accurate descrip- 
tion of each plant, thus making the book 
a practical field book, which it is hoped 
will be found of use to children at home 
or in school. If by its use the boys and 
girls learn to have a deeper love for our 
wild flowers, and a desire for better 
knowledge of them, with the wish to 
preserve them as far as possible in their 
native haunts, the author's hope will be 
fulfilled. We all know how much more 
enjoyable a walk through the country is 
if our eyes are open to the beauties of 
nature, to which the wild flowers con- 
tribute no small part. Who has not felt 
a thrill of joy at the sight of hills cov- 
ered with the exquisite wild violets ; or 
a pond dotted here and there with the 



14 INTRODUCTION 

wonderful white lilies that seem to belong 
to another world ; or who that has seen 
the cardinal flower in its splendor can 
forget the graceful majesty of it? How 
much more we should enjoy the world, 
then, if we were alive to all its beauties 
and wonders! What a marvel of perfec- 
tion each tiniest blossom is, each blade 
of grass ; and yet for the most part we go 
through the world blindly, — seeing only 
the big masses of things that must of 
necessity arrest our attention. It is the 
children who, with infinite wisdom, have 
their eyes wide open for beauty, and minds 
athirst for more knowledge of the things 
they see. To the children who have 
taught me to appreciate a little more the 
beauties of life, I wish to express my 

humble gratitude. 

EDITH DUNHAM. 

February, 1907. 



' V 




These are the little books 

of bloom 
Whose pages printed in 

perfume, 
Hold lyrics in a language 

known 
To bees and butterflies 

alone. " 



15 



DANDELION 

Chicory Family Taraxacum Taraxacum 

Composite (Gray) Taraxacum officinale {Gray) 

JANUARY — DECEMBER 

Common in fields, waste and grassy places. 
The root is thick, deep, and bitter. The scape 
is erect, two to eighteen inches high. Leaves 
are oblong to spatulate, toothed, usually downy 
when young, narrowing into petioles. Flower 
heads are from one to two inches broad, contain- 
ing many golden yellow star-shaped flowers. 
The bracts outside the flower head, called the in- 
volucre, are of two shapes : the inner ones long 
and narrow, the outer ones short and scale-like, 
bent outward. The akenes are greenish brown, 
spindle-shaped, narrowing into a thread-like tip 
two or three times their length, which supports 
the white pappus, or down. In fruiting this be- 
comes a round mass of feathery down, which 
is soon scattered by the wind, taking with it 
the akenes containing seeds. 

16 



m> m% 




DANDELION 



JANUARY— DECEMBER 



TARS of gold all over the grass, 
you find one morning when 
you waken. Of course you 
know at once what they are, 
for haven't you always known 
Dandelions ever since you 
were a tiny baby ? How you love these 
golden heads ! You would like to kiss 
them, every one, and you feel such joy 
in your heart, for now you know that 
spring is here, and spring is the happiest 
time of all, you think. 

Once you found a Dandelion weeks be- 
fore any one else had spied one anywhere, 



17 



18 



DANDELION 



and how proud yon were ! It grew close 
to the ground, out from its 
rosette of ragged-looking 
leaves, and you would not 
pick it until you had shown 
it to Mother and Father, 
and every one in the house. 
When do you love Dande- 
lions better, when they first 
appear or when they turn to 
feathery 
balls of sil- 
ver, and a 
puff sends 
the silver 
threads 
floating in 
the air? 
Attached 
to these 




DANDELION 19 

threads are tiny brown akenes containing 
seeds ; so when you blow the Dandelion 
heads, you are sowing seeds for another 
year. Did you know that? The stems 
are bitter and have a milky juice, but 
you like to put them in your mouth and 
make curls of the long stems. What 
royal crowns can be made of these yellow 
blossoms ! Truly crowns of gold, fit to 
grace the head of a queen. 

Dandelions have many cousins, and 
relations far and near, for they belong to 
a branch of the great Composite Family. 
They bloom almost all the year round, 
but we love the early spring ones best, 
don't we? 



TO THE DANDELION 

Dear common flower, that groweth beside 

the way, 
Fringing the dusty road with harmless 

gold, 
First pledge of blithesome May, 
Which children pluck, and, full of pride, 

uphold, 
High-hearted buccaneers, o'erjoyed that 

they 
An Eldorado in the grass have found, 
Which not the rich earth's ample round 
May match in wealth, thou art more dear 

to me 
Than all the prouder summer blooms 

may be. 

20 



DANDELION 21 

Gold such as thine ne'er drew the Spanish 

prow 
Through the primeval hush of Indian seas, 
Nor wrinkled the lean brow 
Of age, to rob the lover's heart of ease ; 
'Tis the spring's largess, which she scat- 
ters now 
To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand, 
Though most hearts never understand 
To take it at God's value, but pass by 
The offered wealth with unrewarded eye. 

— James Russell Lowell. 



TRAILING ARBUTUS 

Heath Family Epigcea repens 

MARCH — MAY 

Grows close to the ground in sandy or rocky 
woods, often under pine trees. Long shoots 
spread or trail over the ground. The stems are 
reddish, rough, and hairy. Leaves are somewhat 
heart-shaped, evergreen, with veins forming 
a network. Flowers regular, pink, or some- 
times white, fragrant. The corolla is five-lobed, 
salver-shaped, the calyx of five sepals, thin and 
scale-like. There are ten stamens with two- 
celled anthers opening lengthwise ; one pistil 
with a five-lobed stigma. The seeds are small. 



22 



TRAILING ARBUTUS 



MARCH — MAY 

Sometimes very early in the 

spring Father comes home and says, 

"Who would like to go in the 

woods to-morrow to look for 

Arbutus ? " You all jump up 

and down and clap your 

hands and 




24 TRAILING ARBUTUS 

can hardly wait for morning to come; 
and you wonder if it will rain, or if the 
sun will be good enough to shine, and 
you are all impatience. You get into 
your little bed and shut your eyes, — oh, 
so tightly ! — and then open them every 
minute or two to see if morning has 
come. All at once you find it really is 
morning ; and then, after breakfast, what 
a joy it is to start out in the delicious 
air! 

Oh, the dear woods, all fresh and fra- 
grant with the smell of pine needles and 
the damp, sweet earth ! How you wan- 
der about, poking with a little stick 
under last year's leaves, which make such 
a warm little bed for Arbutus ! Some- 
times you discover whole masses of the 
darling little flowers, sweet with the very 
breath of spring ; and you stop and just 



TRAILING ARBUTUS 25 

love the baby flowers before you bury 
your little nose in their fragrance. 

Father has told you many times to leave 
Arbutus where it grows, making the 
woods a treasure-house, and not tear it 
away from its home, as many careless and 
thoughtless people do. You know if you 
take all the flowers this year there may 
never be as many again, and then how 
every one would miss them ! 

You love to look carefully at one of the 
tiny flowers, to see how it is put together. 
The five little petals look like wax, some- 
times such a delicate, beautiful pink, 
when the flowers grow where the sun can 
reach them ; and sometimes almost white, 
when the leaves have covered the baby 
flowers too closely. The stems have a 
little furry look, and seem to be covered 
with tiny reddish hairs. The leaves stay 



26 TRAILING ARBUTUS 

on the little plants all winter, so they 
are called " evergreens. 7 ' Father tells 
you that Arbutus belongs to a big family, 
called the Heath Family ; and you are so 
glad to know that flowers have families, 
and you wonder what their cousins are 
like. Perhaps you will find some of the 
cousins some day, and you will look to 
see if they are at all like Arbutus. 



MAYFLOWER 

What singing of the storm, forest flower, 
What stir of rhythmic pines, 

From drooping boughs what dripping of 
the shower, 
Fashioned your lovely lines ? 

What melody of tides along the shore, 
Sobbing from shelf to shelf, 

What song the brooding mother-bird sings 
o'er 
In silence to herself ? 

What flush of timid sunrise, filtered 
through 
The dusk with roseate glint, 
What moonbeams in the mould and dark 
and dew 
Painted your perfect tint ? 

— Harriet Prescott Spofford. 

27 



BLUETS 

Madder Family Houstonia ccerulea 

APRIL -JULY 

Found on moist banks or grassy places. The 
stems are from three to five inches high, smooth 
and slender. The leaves are very small, oppo- 
site. Flowers pale blue or white, with yellow 
" eye." The calyx is four-lobed. The corolla is 
funnel- or salver-shaped, four-lobed, with the 
tube longer than the lobes. There are four sta- 
mens, and one pistil with one style and two 
stigmas. These are not the same in all flowers ; 
some have long stamens and short pistil, while 
others have short stamens and a long pistil. 
Seeds are in a two-celled pod, and are saucer- 
shaped or thimble-shaped. 



28 



BLUETS: INNOCENTS 

APRIL— JULY 




How you dance for joy 
when one day in early 
spring you come to a 
meadow sprinkled all over with the dear 
little Bluets ! They are like fairy flowers, 
and you love their pretty blue faces with 
the tiny yellow centre. How many of 
them there are, scattered all over the 
fields like a carpet for Titania to dance 
upon ! Sometimes they are almost white, 

29 



30 BLUETS : INNOCENTS 

and then the fields look as though the 
snow fairies had been at work. You 
watch the butterflies flitting about from 
one tiny blossom to another, and you 
almost expect to see the queen of the 
fairies herself floating along on gossamer 
wings. 

These little blossoms are so dainty, 
each with its four tiny petals, and the 
funnel-shaped tube, in which is concealed 
one drop of honey, eagerly sought by 
butterflies. Although the flowers are so 
small, they have many names ; but the 
one " Innocents " seems to fit them best. 
These fairy plants have several cousins, 
some big ones, too, like Button-bush and 
Cape Jessamine, as well as the tiny par- 
tridge berry, loved by the birds. All 
these plants belong to the Madder Fam- 

iiy. 



BLUETS: INNOCENTS 

Have you seen the tiny babies, 

The little Bluets frail ; 
All nestling close together, 

Their faces small and pale? 
But they're brave and uncomplaining 

'Neath stormy April skies, 
As they lisp, " The spring is coming ! " 

With joy in their bright eyes. 

"Innocents," the children call them — 

These floral babies small, 
Of Mother Nature olden, 

Whose broad lap holds them all ; 
To her arms she calls her darlings 

And whispers to them, " Dears, 
To mortals sad and weary 

You bring back childhood's years." 

— Kay Laurance. 
31 



COLUMBINE 

Crowfoot Family Aquilegia Canadensis 

APRIL — JULY 

Found in rocky places. The stems are 
branching. The leaves much divided, with 
lobed leaflets. The flowers are large, nodding, 
bright red with yellow inside. Calyx of five 
bright red sepals, the corolla in the form of 
long hollow spurs that hang down between the 
sepals. The stamens are long and projecting, 
and there are five pistils with slender styles. 
The seeds are in long, narrow pods, many seeds 
in each pod. 



32 



COLUMBINE 

APRIL — JULY 

Nodding down at one from the top of 
high rocks, or peeping out from little 
crevices where we 
might think it 
impossible for 
a flower to grow, 
are our dear J^v 
spring friends, 
the Columbines. * 
Don't you love their 
nodding heads, toss- 
ing with every little 
breeze and seeming 
to smile at you with 
all the freshness and joyousness 

33 




34 COLUMBINE 

of spring? It is worth the climb to get 
beside them in their rocky nest, and one 
feels the whole friendliness of Mother 
Nature when looking at these gay little 
flowers. Bright with their red and yel- 
low, they look so happy that we have 
no desire to tear them from their home, 
where they dance in the breeze and al- 
most seem ready to fly away for very joy. 
Mother tells you to leave these little 
friendly sprites to their happiness, and 
you regretfully clamber down, with many 
backward glances, wishing that some of 
the dear flowers grew right in your 
own little garden, where you could watch 
them every day. Then you are eager to 
hear about them, and question Mother 
closely as to their cousins. They be- 
long to the same family as the Butter- 
cups, though they do not look much 




COLUMBINE 



COLUMBINE 35 

alike, do they ? The Crowfoot Family is 
quite large, and you will find more cous- 
ins some other day. The Columbines 
have another name, a long, hard one that 
means eagle. Do you see the long spurs 
at the top of each flower? It is said 
some one long ago thought these spurs 
looked like eagle's talons, so he gave the 
flowers the name Aquilegia. 



THE COLUMBINE 

Gay in her red gown, trim and fine, 
Dances the merrv Columbine. 

Never she thinks if her petals shall 
fall; 
Cold rains beating she does not 
dread ; 
Sunshine is round her and spring 
birds call, 
Blue are the skies above her 
head. 
So in her red gown, trim and fine, 
Merrily dances the Columbine. 

— Arlo Bates. 



36 



A FLOWER ACQUAINTANCE 

I met a little lady, 

A stranger here, mayhap ; 
She wore a gown of green, 

She wore a scarlet cap. 

Graceful was her figure, 
Her manners very fine ; 

A fairy airy creature, 

Her name was Columbine. 

Her pasture was her parlor, 
Very sweet the views ; 

The wind from every corner 
Brought the latest news. 

— Mart F. Butts. 



37 



DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES 

Poppy Family Bicuculla Cucullaria 

Fumitory Family (Gray) Dicentra Cucullaria {Gray) 

APKIL — MAY 

Found in woods. Delicate, smooth plants, 
five to ten inches high, rising from a bulbous 
base. Leaves all from the base, pale beneath, 
slender petioled, compound in threes, divisions 
with stalks, and finely cut into many long and 
narrow, or oblanceolate, parts. Flowers in ra- 
cemes, nodding, white or very pale pink with 
yellow tips, spurs widely spreading. Calyx of 
two sepals, scale-like. Corolla heart-shaped at 
base, petals four in two pairs, close together, 
outside pair oblong, concave with spurs at base, 
spreading at top ; the inner pair narrow, winged 
on the back. There are six stamens in two sets, 
and a pistil with slender style and two-lobed 
stigma. The seeds are crested. 

38 



DUTCHMAN'S 
BREECHES 

APRIL — MAY 




What dear 
little dollies' 
clothes are 
these hung 
out so care- 
fully to dry, 
along the 
stem of this 
delicate - looking plant ? Don't 
they look like the clothes worn 
by Pantaloon in your panto- 
mime book? Once you have 
found these curious little flowers, 
you search the woods through 
looking for more, they have such 



40 DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES 

a fascination for you. You remember 
that in Grandmother's garden there are 
some flowers somewhat like these, only 
they are bright red, almost the color of 
blood, and their name is Bleeding Heart. 

You like the dear little flowers in the 
woods better though, and pretend that 
you have just washed all these clothes 
for your Dutch dolly Nikolas, and hung 
them up to dry. You know that this 
arrangement of flowers is called a "ra- 
ceme," and you will find many other 
flower friends growing in the same way, 
though none of them quite like these in 
their quaint daintiness. 

Once, near the top of a mountain, you 
found a cousin of Dutchman's Breeches. 
You were sure, for the leaves were much 
the same, and the flowers looked a little 
as though they might be the other flowers 



f. 






DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES 41 

cut in half. They were pink, tipped with 
a pale yellow, while the Dutchman's 
Breeches are white, also with a touch of 
yellow. The flower cousin's name was 
Pale Corydalis, and you thought it very 
beautiful, and you liked to play with the 
long pods, which contained many seeds. 



BIRD-FOOT VIOLET 

Violet Family Viola pedata 

APRIL — JUNE 

These grow in sandy or light soil, from short 
and thick or tuber-like rootstock. The leaves 
are alternate, cut into narrow divisions so that 
they have a resemblance to birds' claws. Flow- 
ers quite large, violet-blue or sometimes darker. 
Calyx has five sepals, which remain after the 
seeds have ripened. The corolla is of five petals, 
unequal in size, the lower one with a sac or 
spur at the base. There are also inconspicuous 
flowers among the leaves, called cleistogamous 
flowers, in which seeds ripen. There are five 
stamens, short, with very broad, flat filaments ; 
anthers on inner side, enclosing the one pistil. 
Pod one-celled, containing several rather large 
seeds. 

42 



BIRD-FOOT VIOLET 



APRIL — JUNE 



The violet-covered 
hills ! One morning 
in spring you gain the 
top of the first 
little hill and 
look across, 
where, as 
far as your 
eye can see, 
the ground is 
carpeted with 
the pale blue 
Bird-foot Violet. 
Best loved of all 




44 BIRD-FOOT VIOLET 

the family, how anxiously you have 
awaited their coming! Day after day 
you have walked over to the little hills, 
and sometimes discovered one or two 
small clumps of these darling flowers ; but 
now the hill is fairly blue, and your joy 
knows no bounds. Their fragrance is of 
the breeze that sweeps gently over their 
heads. Indeed, the soft air, the songs of 
the birds, and the smell of the moist 
earth of springtime are all forever asso- 
ciated with the perfume of these dear 
flowers. You are displeased with people 
who can find no fragrance in them. To 
you they are sweeter far than even the 
tiny White Violets that you often find in 
the swamp close by. The Bird-foot Violet 
breathes of spring and joy, besides being 
a delight to the eye. 

You wonder why its leaves are so dif- 



BIRD-FOOT VIOLET 45 

ferent from the other Violets that you 
know, and are pleased to find a resem- 
blance to a bird's foot or claw. One day 
you found a pink Violet, and how de- 
lighted you were ! How you searched 
for another like it, but to this day you 
have not found one pink one, though you 
have found many different shades of vio- 
let and blue, some very pale and others 
deep, deep blue like the sea. You love 
their bright faces, with the yellow centres 
and the dark veinings on the lower 
petals. 

These charming friends are usually 
found growing on high, sandy places, like 
the hills where you first became ac- 
quainted with them. 



WINTER CRESS 

.., ^ Barbarea stricta 

Mustard Family n _ ,.,,«,. 

Barbarea vulgaris {Gray) 

APRIL — JUNE 

In old gardens, fields, and waste places. 
Branching herbs, with angled stems. Leaves 
pinnatifid, or divided, alternate. Flowers bright 
yellow, in racemes. Calyx of four sepals, which 
fall off before the fruit ripens. Corolla of four 
petals in form of cross, nearly equal, generally 
clawed. Stamens six, two shorter than the 
other four. Pistil with a short style and stigma 
two-lobed, or nearly rounded like the head of a 
pin. Pod, or silique, long and narrow, four 
angled. One row of seeds in each cell, flat and 
oblong. 



46 




WINTER CRESS 

APRIL - JUNE 

Very often you see Winter 
Cress in fields and 
along the road, and 
you like its bright 
yellow flowers. Some- 
times it is called Yellow 
Rocket, — you know 
that flowers often 
have several names. 
You notice that the 
leaves are of different 
shapes — some more cut 
and notched than others. 
This yellow flower has 
numbers of relatives, for 



47 



48 WINTER CRESS 

it is a member of the Mustard Family. 
You know what mustard is like, don't you, 
because once you took some in your 
mouth by mistake, thinking it might be 
custard, and how it burned your tongue ! 
All the members of this family have a 
sharp, biting juice, though it is more 
stinging in some than in others. Water 
Cress, too, belongs to the Mustard Family. 
Tou are very fond of looking for that in 
the little clear brook at the edge of the 
meadow, aren't you ? 

It is quite easy to know the flowers 
that belong to this family, for they are 
much alike, varying in size and color, 
but nearly all with four petals spread out 
in the shape of a cross. It is interesting 
to see that the seed pods are almost al- 
ways on the plant before all the flowers 
disappear. You are surprised, aren't you, 



WINTER CRESS 49 

to find that so many plants have long 
pods, like peas and beans ? The seed 
pods of mustard are of many different 
shapes and sizes. In old-fashioned gar- 
dens is one of the mustards with round, 
flat pods which become very satiny and 
like silver, so that they are extremely 
pretty. This plant is called Honesty, or 
Satin-flower. 



JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 

Arum Family Ariscema triphyllum 

APRIL — JUNE 

Found in rich woods. The stem rises from 
a corm shaped like a turnip. The leaves are di- 
vided into three leaflets, with lower end of the 
stalk sheathing the stem, which ends in a long 
spadix. The spadix is a kind of fleshy spike 
with flowers only at the base, where it is en- 
veloped by the lower part of the greenish, pur- 
plish spathe. Flowers are small and inconspic- 
uous. The spathe is sometimes green and 
white, sometimes purple and green, and arches at 
the top like the sounding-board of an old-fash- 
ioned pulpit. Fruit, bright scarlet berries, 
closely packed on the spadix. 



50 




JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 

APRIL — JUNE 

Dear little 
preacher of 
the cool, rich 

woods, what is the text of his 
sermon? He is one of your 
best loved friends, and how 
many times you have wished 
that the fairies would give you 
the power to listen to this tiny 
preacher. You have no doubt 
of his really speaking in some 
unknown tongue, for doesn't he 
stand up day after day straight 
and tall in his little pulpit, and 
are not the plants all about 



51 



52 JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 

behaving well and listening intently ? 
To be sure there are sometimes some 
very naughty-looking Toadstools near 
by, and the queer white Indian Pipe, but 
are they not all hanging their heads in 
shame ? 

Sometimes Jack has a gay little pulpit 
striped with purple and green, sometimes 
it is green and white or green only, with 
the two leaves floating above like banners. 
Each leaf is divided into three leaflets, 
and Jack's banners are raised high in the 
air to proclaim that he is on duty in his 
little pulpit. We know that Jack is a 
friendly little preacher and has nothing 
but good to say of his neighbors, and his 
sermons must be full of the beauty and 
joy of spring. 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit has several cousins 
that are familiar to you. One of these is 




JACK- IN -THE -PULP IT 



JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 53 

the Calla Lily, which you see very often in 
gardens. Sweet Flag and the common 
Skunk Cabbage are also members of the 
Arum Family. 



JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 

Jack-in-the-Pulpit preaches to-day 
Under the green trees just over the way. 
Squirrel and song-sparrow, high on their 

perch, 
Hear the sweet lily-bells ringing to church. 

Come, hear what his Reverence rises to say, 
In his painted pulpit, this calm Sabbath 

day. 
Fair is the canopy over him seen, 
Pencilled by nature's hand, black, brown, 

and green. 

Green is his surplice, green are his bands; 
In his queer little pulpit the little priest 
stands. 

54 



JACK-IN-THE-PULPIT 55 

In black and gold velvet, so gorgeous 

to see, 
Comes with his bass voice the chorister 

bee. 

Green fingers playing unseen on wind 

lyres — 
Low-singing bird voices — these are his 

choirs. 
The violets are deacons, I know, by the 

sign 
That the cups which they carry are purple 

with wine. 

— Edited by J. G. Whittier. 



BARBERRY 

Barberry Family Berberis vulgaris 

MAY — JUNE 

These shrubs run wild in thickets and along 
roadsides. The wood and inner bark is yel- 
low. The leaves have sharp, spiny teeth, and 
are clustered in the axils of spines which answer 
to leaves of the shoots of previous year. The 
flowers are in long, drooping racemes, and are 
yellow. Corolla, of six petals. The calyx has six 
sepals, with bracts or outer sepals behind the 
true ones. There are six stamens, one before 
each petal, with anthers opening like trap-doors 
hinged at the top. There is one pistil. The 
fruit consists of long, red, sour berries which 
hang in drooping racemes. 



56 



BARBERRY 

MAY — JUNE 



\ 




Driving along 

a country road you 

are charmed to see 

the Barberry bushes droop- 

with their burden of red 

coral beads." Bright scarlet 

they are, hanging in long, thick 

clusters. Once you stopped to 

pick some, and found that the 

bush was well guarded by spines, 

57 



58 BARBERRY 

large and small, on leaves and stem, so 
that you had to be careful where you put 
your fingers. 

You like the taste of the berries, 
though they are very acid and some- 
what " puckery." Sometimes nurse gives 
you a delicious cool drink made from Bar- 
berries, and you think that when you grow 
up you will drink Barberry water always 
instead of milk. 

You wonder why the yellow blossoms 
that were on the Barberry bushes in the 
spring should have changed to red 
berries. The change pleases you, for you 
like the berries better, though the yellow 
flowers are pretty, clustered in long 
" racemes. " You remember that the 
flowers of Dutchman's Breeches grow 
this way, as also your garden favorite, 
Lily-of-the- Valley, and we shall find 



BARBERRY 59 

many other flower friends with the same 
arrangement. 

You would like the Barberry flowers 
better if their odor was not so disagree- 
able, and if there were not so many bees 
and insects flying about the bushes in the 
spring. We think Barberry bushes are 
ornamental at any season of the year, and 
make an attractive hedge about fields and 
meadows. Perhaps the farmers would 
not agree with us in this, as they feel 
that the Barberry is injurious to some of 
their crops 5 particularly wheat. 



PITCHER PLANT 

Pitcher Plant Family Sarracenia purpurea 

MAY — JUNE 

These interesting plants are found in bogs. 
The roots last from year to year. Leaves are 
from the root, in form of pitchers, winged down 
the inner side and open at the top, where there 
is a kind of arching hood. The scape is tall, 
bearing one large, nodding, purple flower. Calyx 
is of five sepals, colored, with three little bracts 
at base. Corolla of five petals, fiddle-shaped, 
curved over the large, flat, or somewhat rounded 
petal-like top of the style. There are many 
stamens. Pistil has a large yellow disk-like or 
umbrella-shaped style with five angles, and a 
small hooked stigma at each angle. Pod is 
rough-warty, with many seeds. 



60 



PITCHER PLANT 



MAY — JUNE 



,V 



A plant with truly little pitchers 
growing on it. What more delight- 
ful than this ? You love to see the 
plant after a rain-storm, when the 
pitchers are half full of water, 
then it is such fun to tip it 
out. You feel sorry for the 
poor flies and bugs that have 



V 



\ v 



VI 



// /y. 



61 



62 PITCHER PLANT 

fallen in, and wish you had been there 
to rescue them. One day you were most 
surprised to find that the Pitcher plant 
had blossoms, as well as these wonderful 
little pitchers. What strange foreign- 
looking blossoms they were, too ; not 
only on account of the color, which was 
most gorgeous, but they were also of a 
peculiar shape. Sometimes the calyx was 
purple and the corolla pink, turned in 
a curious way over a large " disk-like " 
yellow style. You revelled in the color 
of the blossoms, but liked the purple- 
veined pitchers better. At first you 
thought the flies had fallen in the water, 
but you learned that the pitchers were 
made to catch unwary insects, and were 
sticky inside and covered with little hairs 
that made it impossible for an insect 
to crawl out after he once fell into this 



PITCHER PLANT 68 

trap. In this way food is furnished for 
the plant. You thought all plants drew 
their nourishment from the ground, didn't 
you? There are a few, like the Pitcher 
plant, which are provided with traps to 
catch insects, and they are called car- 
nivorous plants. Venus's Fly-trap and 
Round-leaved Sundew are this kind of 
plant. Have you ever seen either of 
them ? 



WILD LUPINE 

Pulse or Pea Family Lupinus perennis 

MAY — JUNE 

In sandy soil, and on high, gravelly banks. 
The stems are erect, hairy, and from one to one 
and a half feet high. The leaves are of from 
seven to eleven leaflets, all from the top of the 
leaf-stalk. Flowers purplish bine, in long, thick 
racemes, papilionaceous, which means butterfly- 
like. The corolla is of five petals, the large 
upper one called the standard, the two side ones 
called wings, and the two lower ones the keel. 
The standard has rounded sides, rolled back- 
ward, the wings enclose the keel. The calyx is 
two lipped. Stamens, ten with five anthers 
differing from the other five. Pod, or legume, 
like that of a pea, several seeded, opening on 
both sides. 

64 



WILD LUPINE 



Don't you 
the spring 
Mother to 



once came 




MAY — JUNE 



remember the day in 

when you went with 

find Violets, and all at 

to a high bank of sand 

so covered with blue flowers 

that the very earth 

looked blue ? You 

thought at first 

that these flowers 

were Violets, then you thought 

they must be Sweet Peas, but 

when you looked closely 

you found they were 

neither of these familiar 

65 



Q6 WILD LUPINE 

friends, and you asked Mother what the 
pretty blossoms were. She told you that 
their name was Lupine, and that they 
were related to Sweet Peas. 

How delighted you were with the fan- 
like leaves, each with many leaflets. You 
counted and found that some had seven 
leaflets, others eight, and some even had 
eleven. You were more pleased with the 
blossoms ; they were such a beautiful 
blue, and did look a little like Sweet Peas, 
but more like Wistaria, because they 
grew with many flowers along one stem. 

You looked at one of the flowers to 
see how it was put together, because it 
seemed to have wings and looked a little 
like a butterfly. Just then a bee came 
buzzing by and alighted upon one of the 
flowers near you. He stepped on the 
wings, when the two lower petals opened, 



WILD LUPINE 67 

and you discovered that in there was the 
storehouse where the honey was kept. 
You watched the bee go from flower to 
flower, and were so much interested that 
you forgot all about going for Violets. 

You asked Mother to tell you more 
about the Lupine, and she told you some 
interesting things. One was that the 
plant goes to sleep at night, and some- 
times in the daytime, when the little 
leaflets fold like an umbrella. She told 
you, too, that several of the cousins of 
Wild Lupine have a funny way of shut- 
ting their leaves if anything touches them. 
One of these relatives is called " Sensitive 
Plant. " Locust Trees, Acacia, Clover, 
Beans, Peanuts, and many other plants 
well known, also belong to the Pulse or 
Pea Family. 



OXEYE OR WHITE DAISY 

Thistle Family Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum 

Composite Family (Gray) 

MAY — NOVEMBER 

Pastures, meadows, and waste places. Stem 
smooth, simple, or little branched, one to three 
feet high. Leaves at base coarsely toothed, nar- 
rowed into long, slender petioles ; stem leaves 
mostly without petioles, partly clasping the stem, 
narrower, toothed ; upper leaves very small and 
nearly entire. Flower heads one to two inches 
broad, on long, naked stalks. Ray flowers white, 
spreading, from twenty to thirty in each head, 
slightly toothed. Bracts of involucre oblong- 
lanceolate, smooth, thin, dry margins. Disk 
flowers perfect, corollas with long and round, or 
two-winged tubes, and four to five cleft borders. 
Ray flowers with pistils. Akenes of disk flowers 
angled, or long and round, five to ten ribbed ; 
those of ray flowers usually three angled. 

68 







OXEYE OR WHITE 
DAISY 

MAY— NOVEMBER 



The Daisy fields ! 

How beautiful they 

look to you, when 
all at once the 
whole meadow 
seems to burst 

into bloom. You 
dance for joy at 

. the sight, and it 
seems to you as 
- though the 

^pi§^^^ wh ° ie sky mi ° f 

Wifflr^' ''* "" stars had fallen, 
like snowflakes, covering 



70 OXEYE OR WHITE DAISY 

everything. You love the Daisies, and 
delight in gathering great bunches of 
them to fill the largest jars Mother will 
let you have. 

How white the ray flowers are and 
how yellow the centres ! Each white 
petal-like ray is a flower you know, and 
the yellow centre is made up of countless 
numbers of tiny flowers. Sometimes you 
pull the white flowers out one by one, 
counting the old game "Loves me, loves 
me not," then you take all the yellow 
flowers on the back of your hand and toss 
them into the air. You feel so sorry 
afterward to think that you have pulled 
this beautiful flower head all to pieces, 
but you see so many all around that you 
forget to be careful, and are reckless with 
happiness. Farmers find the Daisy very 
annoying, for it gets in the fields, and 



OXEYE OR WHITE DAISY 71 

every year there are so many more that 
everything he plants would be crowded 
out if he did not keep constant watch. 
You don't see how anything so beautiful 
can be troublesome, do you ? 

You have noticed that when you carry 
Daisies home, no matter how wilted they 
look, if you put them in water they come 
up again bright and fresh, and almost 
seem to smile at you, thanking you for the 
refreshing drink. You will always love 
Daisies I am sure, for they are among 
your earliest friends. They belong to the 
Composite Family, and have such a long 
name that you will find it very hard 
to say — Chrysanthemum Leucanthemum. 
Wouldn't you rather call them Daisies ? 



BOSSY AND THE DAISY 

Eight up in Bossy's eyes, 
Looked the Daisy, boldly, 

But, alas ! to his surprise, 
Bossy ate him, coldly. 

Listen ! Daisies in the fields, 

Hide away from Bossy ! 
Daisies make the milk she yields, 

And her coat grow glossy ! 

So, each day, she tries to find 
Daisies nodding sweetly, 

And, although it's most unkind, 
Bites their heads off neatly! 

— Margaret Deland. 



72 



DAISY GRANDMOTHERS 

We were sitting down in the grasses, 

Deep in it, it was taller than we ; 
The daisies were there, close beside us, 

In a circle they stood on a mound, 
And auntie took out her sharp scissors 

And she snipped them around and 
around, 
Until each had a white cap border, 

And she left them two petals for strings ; 
And then next she found a lead pencil 

In her bag with the rest of her things ; 
And with that, on each yellow centre, 

Auntie drew such a queer little face — 
But look — you can see the grandmammas, 

Here they are in the same grassy place ! 

— Anonymous. 



73 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL 

Heath Family Kalmia latifolia 

MAY — JUNE 

These shrubs are found in damp grounds and 
along mountains. The leaves are evergreen, 
shining, long, and pointed. The flowers are in 
large and showy clusters, and are pink and 
white. The corolla is slightly five-lobed, broadly 
open, with ten little depressions or hollows in 
which the anthers rest until disturbed by insects, 
when the elastic filaments fly up, releasing the 
anthers and sending out showers of fine pollen 
dust. The calyx is very small. There are ten 
stamens, with long slender filaments and short 
anthers opening by holes at the top. The one 
pistil has a long and slender style. The seed 
pod is globular. 



74 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL 

MAY— JUNE 

Your happiness is quite complete when 
one day in May or June you see before 
you what seemsK^ like a whole garden 
of Laurel. You 
have climbed up 




a wooded, rocky hill, through 
the most enchanting little path, winding 



75 



76 MOUNTAIN LAUREL 

up and up through fairy-land, it seems to 
you. You have stopped all along the way, 
for some new wonder or old friend among 
the flowers greets you at every step ; but 
now you have reached the top. Oh, the 
wonder of the Laurel ! You stop, and 
one by one the flowers you have gathered 
drop from your hand, for Laurel claims 
all your attention. Even the shrubs are 
attractive, with their many evergreen 
leaves ; but when the Laurel is in full 
bloom, and the great clusters of white 
and pink flowers, shaded from the most 
delicate blush to a beautiful deep pink, 
greet your eye, both your eyes and heart 
revel in the glory. 

Every blossom seems to you like a 
dainty china cup, exquisite enough for 
Titania to drink from. You are interested 
to see how each stamen fits into a little 




^B I \ ■-■-■" i ' 'i 



\ 



BOUNCING BET 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL 77 

hollow in the corolla, and you notice that 
the gentlest touch makes one or more fly 
up, sending out a fine dust of pollen. You 
love the little buds, and are glad there are 
so many in the clusters. They remind 
you very much, the tiniest ones, of the 
little candies that were sprinkled over 
your last birthday cake. If only your 
birthday came in May or June you would 
gather a big bouquet of Laurel for the 
table every year; but, alas, it comes very 
late in the year when all your dear out- 
door flower friends are taking their winter 
nap. It pleases you to know that Laurel 
is a cousin of Arbutus, for both flowers 
are so dear to you that you feel they 
ought to be related. Wintergreen also is 
a cousin, as that too belongs to the Heath 
Family. 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL 

When, pale and pure against the sombre 
green 
Of spreading hemlocks and close-crowd- 
ing pines, 
In northern woods thy moonlight beauty 
shines, — 
Thou seem'st, stately Kalmia, like a 
queen, 
Alien and sad, exiled but not dis- 
crowned ; 
A wanderer from distant tropic lands, 
But regal still, and bearing in thy hands 
Caskets of pearl and rose, securely 
bound. 
Fair fugitive, I would not be too bold, 
Nor seek to probe thy hidden history ; 
I pluck thy blossoms, not thy mystery ; 

78 



MOUNTAIN LAUREL 79 

Yet, I were rich indeed, with wealth un- 
told, 

If in some trusting hour thou wouldst un- 
fold 

The secrets that those cunning caskets 
hold. 

— Emily Shaw Forman. 



CELANDINE 

Poppy Family Chelidonium majus 

MAY — AUGUST 

Found in waste lands and in gardens. The 
stem is branching, one to four feet high, with 
thick orange or yellow juice. Leaves divided or 
compound, lobed. Flowers yellow, growing in 
umbels. Corolla of four petals, which are 
crumpled in the flower bud. Calyx of two 
sepals, falling when the blossom opens. Stamens 
numerous. One pistil with a two-lobed stigma. 
Fruit, a long and narrow pod, containing many 
seeds. 



80 




CELANDINE 



MAY— AUGUST 



you 



The most inter- 
esting thing about 
Celandine, to you, is 
the yellow juice like 
thick paint that flows 
very freely if you 
break off a branch of 
this sturdy plant. 
Once you imag- 
ined that you could 
paint such a beauti- 
*e with the ends of 
stems, and you tried it 
old board fence, but 
were disgusted to find 

81 



82 CELANDINE 

that the yellow color would not stay in 
spite of all your efforts. Privately, you 
rather despise the Celandine; it is one of 
the few flowers that really seems only a 
weed to you, and though the flowers are of 
rather a pretty yellow, they do not please 
you. The leaves are more interesting, you 
think. They look as though some elf had 
nibbled the edges all around just for mis- 
chief. Both leaves and stem are hairy. 
Tou are surprised to hear that Celandine is 
a cousin of the Poppies in your garden, and 
you look at the yellow flowers with more 
respect when you know of this relation- 
ship, for the Poppies are your joy and pride, 
and a cousin of theirs is worthy of some 
attention. " Poor Celandine/ 7 you think 
in your heart, " perhaps it couldn't help 
being unattractive ; the Poppies may have 
taken all the good looks of the family." 



CELANDINE 83 

You wonder if Celandine would grow 
prettier if it had a nice little garden all by 
itself. It always seems to be crowded in 
with so many other weeds, Burdock, Plan- 
tain, and uninteresting plants, that you 
think it may need more room. Your own 
little garden is already full, and you just 
can't give up your Pansies or Poppies; 
so you take your little spade and trowel and 
clear a space around the Celandine in the 
vacant lot where you often find it growing. 
It is a difficult task, for it seems to be hope- 
lessly tangled with all sorts of weeds and 
tiresome plants. You are proud of your 
Celandine garden and Mother knows just 
how you feel about it, but tells you that 
Celandine is one of the plants that will 
grow anywhere and anyhow, and does not 
object to being crowded. 



LADY'S SLIPPER 

Orchis Family Cypripedium acaule 

MAY — JUNE 

Found in the shade of evergreen trees, in moist 
or sandy ground. The rootstock is short and 
knotty, producing long, coarse, fibrous roots. The 
stem or scape is eight to twelve inches high, 
bearing one large flower. There are two leaves 
at the base of the scape, oblong, downy, and many 
nerved. Perianth is of two petals besides the lip, 
which is a large, inflated sac, purplish pink, 
split down the front but nearly closed ; three 
sepals, spreading, greenish in color. There are 
two stamens fastened to the style, each stamen 
with two, two-celled anthers. The pistil has a 
broad stigma. Pollen is sticky on the surface, as 
if with a delicate coat of varnish. 



84 



LADY'S SLIPPER 



MAY — JUNE 



You wonder if the 
prince who found 
Cinderella's slipper 




was half as 
happy as you, 
when you spy 
one of these 
beautiful pink- 
ie flowers. Surely 
some Indian princess has 
dropped her moccasin here in 
the woods, and what a delicate, 
dainty creature she must be ! 
When Mother Earth found this 



85 



86 LADY'S SLIPPER 

graceful shoe, you think she must have 
raised it high in the air to aid the prin- 
cess in her search, — for of course she 
will return to claim it. 

Suddenly you find a host of the exqui- 
site blossoms in the pine woods, and then 
you know that they are fairy slippers. 
You have never thought of Indian fairies 
before, but what delightful possibilities it 
suggests. Perhaps you will find some 
tiny wigwams close at hand ; here under 
this spreading pine tree is a charming 
spot for a camp fire. 

Well, even if you are told that the 
Lady ? s Slipper is a member of the Orchis 
Family, the flowers of which take many 
fantastic shapes, you are sure in your 
heart that the Indian fairies have been 
busily at work making moccasins for all 
the tribe. 



LADY'S SLIPPER 87 

What a beautiful color this flower is, 
veined so delicately with a deeper shade 
of purple ! Isn't it always a joy to find 
one, and don't you every spring go eagerly 
to the spot where once you found so many ? 
Unfortunately, these lovely blossoms are 
so coveted that they are getting very rare 
in some of the places where once they 
bloomed in profusion. 



LADY'S SLIPPER: MOCCASIN FLOWER 

Graceful and tall the slender drooping 
stem, 
With two broad leaves below, 
Shapely the flower so lightly poised 
between, 
And warm its rosy glow. 

— Elaine E. Good ale. 



BLUE FLAG 

Iris Family Iris versicolor 

MAY — JULY 

In swamps and damp places. Grows from a 
creeping rootstock. The stem is stout, from one 
to three feet high, angled on one side. The 
leaves are sword-shaped, sheathing the stem at 
base. Flowers are large, showy, violet-blue 
variegated with white, yellow, and purple, from 
a spathe of two or more leaves or bracts. The 
perianth is of six divisions, the three large outer 
ones curving outward, the smaller ones inside 
erect or curving inward. There are three stamens 
with anthers facing outward, under the petal- 
like lobes of the style. Pistil, one with the 
three divisions of the style like petals. Pod, 
three-angled and oblong. 



88 




BLUE FLAG 



MAY — JULY 



Somehow it always 
seems to you as though the 
most beautiful Iris, or Blue 
Flag, grows just out of 
reach, yet how perfect is 
each flower in your hand ! 
Truly, this seems like a 
royal flower, rich with its 
purple and yellow. " King 
of the Marshes " we might 
call it, as it stands up 
proudly and with a regal 
air close by the water's 
edge, and sometimes even 
in the little pools with 



90 BLUE FLAG 

which the marsh is dotted. In trying to 
gather some of these splendid flowers to 
carry home to Mother, you often get your 
feet very wet, as the ground all about is 
most uncertain and has a tricky way of 
suddenly disappearing beneath one's feet, 
leaving a black little pool or very wet 
spot in its place. 

You love the little sharp-pointed buds, 
encased in a sheath of green ; and the 
leaves are interesting too, looking like 
huge, huge blades of grass. But the 
flowers are your joy ! A handful of these 
treasures makes the discomfort of wet feet 
a trifle not to be thought of. It seems to 
you as though a rainbow had given all its 
colors to these gorgeous flowers, and you 
are delighted when Mother tells you that 
Iris means rainbow. Next time after a 
shower, when the rainbow is in the sky, 




BLUE FLAG 



BLUE FLAG 91 

you mean to run down to the marsh and 
see if any more Blue Flag has blossomed. 
You are sure that the colors will be much 
brighter than any that you have ever 
found before. 

See how the flower parts are divided 
into threes ; the perianth, or outer part of 
the flower, has three large divisions and 
three smaller ones, then there are three 
stamens, and a pistil divided at the top 
into three petal-like parts. There are 
several flower families besides Iris that 
have the parts divided into threes, then 
there are flowers that are in fours, and 
many in fives. Isn't this interesting ? 
Now you will look more closely at all the 
flowers you find to see how they are 
divided, won't you? 



J 



THE FLOWER-DE-LUCE 

Beautiful lily, dwelling by still rivers 

Or solitary mere, 
Or where the sluggish meadow brook 
delivers 
Its waters to the weir ! 
Thou laughest at the mill, the whir and 
worry 
Of spindle and loom, 
And the great wheel that toils amid 
the hurry 
And rushing of the flume. 
Born in the purple, and uplifts thy 
drooping banner, 
And round thee throng and run 
The rushes, the green yeomen of thy 
manor, 
The outlaws of the sun. 

92 



THE FLOWER-DE-LUCE 93 

The burnished dragon-fly is thine attend- 
ant, 
And tilts against the field, 
And down the listed sunbeams rides 
resplendent, 
With steel-blue mail and shield. 
Thou art the Iris, fair among the fairest, 

Who, armed with Goldenrod 
And winged with the celestial azure, 
bearest 
The message of some God. 

— H. W. Longfellow. 



BLACK-EYED SUSAN 

Thistle Family Rudbechia hirta 

Composite Family (Gray) 

MAY — SEPTEMBER 

In fields. Stems simple or sparingly branched, 
from one to three feet high. Leaves slightly 
toothed, lanceolate to oblong, lower ones with 
petioles, upper ones without, narrower, acute. 
Flower heads two to four inches broad, with 
from ten to twenty orange-colored ray flowers. 
Bracts of the involucre hairy, spreading or bent 
backward, much shorter than the rays. Disk 
purple-brown, disk flowers perfect, with five 
lobed corollas. Anthers entire, or with two 
points at base. Style branching, with hairy 
appendages. Ray flowers without stamens or 
pistils, entire or toothed. Receptacle conic or 
convex with chaffy scales enveloping disk 
flowers. Akenes four-angled. 

94 




BLACK-EYED SUSAN 

MAY — SEPTEMBER 

One morning in sum- 
mer you went for such 
a pleasant walk with 
Florence and 
Nurse, and 
you saw a 
great big meadow with 
tall, tall grass, and oh, 
so many flowers ! Do you 
remember ? The 
meadow was just 
sunshiny all over, and at one 
end were ever and ever so many 
bright yellow flowers something 

95 



96 BLACK-EYED SUSAN 

like Daisies, and something like Sun- 
flowers. 

You ran and Florence ran, and Nurse 
let you pick as many as you liked. She 
told you they were called Black-eyed 
Susans. How you laughed at the funny 
name, and you took some of the bright 
flowers home to show Mother. 

Do you remember how she took one 
and pulled it apart to show you how the 
big flower head was made up of little 
flowers? The outside yellow petals were 
flowers, each of them, and the big brown 
centre, too, was a mass of little flowers 
all closely packed together. Mother told 
you that flowers arranged like this be- 
longed to a big family called Composite 
or Thistle. 




BLACK-EYED SUSAN 



BLACK-EYED SUSAN: CONE FLOWER 

Merry, laughing Black-eyed Susans grow 

along the dusty way, 
Homely, wholesome, happy-hearted little 

country maids are they. 
Frailer sisters shrink and wither, 'neath 

the hot midsummer sun, 
But these sturdy ones will revel till the 

long, bright days are done. 
Though they lack the Rose's sweetness and 

the Lily's tender grace, 
We are thankful for the brightness of each 

honest, glowing face ; 
For in dry and barren places, where no 

daintier blooms would stay, 
Merry, laughing Black-eyed Susans cheer 

us on our weary way. 

— Minnie Curtis Wait. 
97 



SOLOMON'S SEAL 

Lily Family Polygonatum biflorum 

MAY — JULY 

Wooded banks. Grows from a rootstock on 
which are scars suggesting the impression of a 
seal on wax. These scars were left by the 
separation of stems of previous years from the 
rootstock. Stem is slender and curving, one to 
three feet high. Leaves, parallel-veined, with- 
out stalks. Flowers in axils of the leaves, nod- 
ping, pale yellow, cream white, or greenish. 
Perianth, six-lobed at end, bell-shaped. Sta- 
mens, six with two-celled anthers. The one 
pistil has a slender style. Fruit, a dark blue 
round berry, containing a few seeds. 



SOLOMON'S SEAL 



MAY— JULY 

The little path 
the woods always 
fairy-land to 
in the spring, 



d 



and all about- 
had for the 
love this 
— how sud- 
dips down 
street, down, 
where one's 



through 
seems like 
you, most of all 
when trees and 
bushes are put- 
ting out the dain- 
tiest, prettiest little 
leaves of pale green, 
are treasures to be 
picking. You 
special path, 
x\ denly it 
from the 
down the dearest little hill, 
il feet will insist on running 

LOFt " 



100 SOLOMON'S SEAL 

as fast as possible, — and then all at once 
you are in fairy-land. It is always a joy 
to come here ; but one day you remember 
above all others, for the flowers seemed 
to spring up all around and your hands 
were full before you reached the little 
marshy spot that one crosses before com- 
ing to the hollow tree. This w^as the day 
you first found Solomon's Seal growing 
in the woods, though you had often seen 
it in Grandmother's garden, — and truly 
had not cared much for it. Here in your 
enchanted path it seemed like a chime 
of fairy bells, and you almost thought 
you could hear the music. 

The small bell-shaped flowers were of 
a yellow or cream color, and hung down 
beneath the leaves in clusters of twos. 
How gracefully the stem bent with their 
weight ! You brushed your fingers gently 



SOLOMON'S SEAL 101 

across the bells to see if they really would 
make music, — but it must have been 
fairy music, for you could not distinguish 
a sound. Oh, if you were only like Puck, 
with sharp pointed ears, and could come 
to this treasure-house late at night, what 
music you would hear ! 

You wonder why this plant is called 
Solomon's Seal, and are tolcl of a resem- 
blance on the rootstock to the impression 
of a seal on wax. Then you want to 
know why it is Solomon's Seal, and when 
no one can tell you just why, you are 
more sure than ever that grown-ups are 
very stupid — a suspicion that has lurked 
in your mind for a long time. You never 
give names to things without a good rea- 
son, perfectly explainable ; but you think 
grown-ups must just give names because 
things have to be called something. 



ST. JOHN'S WORT 

St. John's Wort Family Hypericum perforatum 

JUNE— SEPTEMBER 

A troublesome weed in fields. Spreads by 
runners from the base. The stems are upright, 
branching. Leaves are opposite, without petioles, 
small, with pellucid or translucent dots. Flowers 
quite large, yellow, growing in leafy cymes. 
The calyx has live lance-shaped and pointed 
sepals. The corolla is of five yellow petals dot- 
ted with black, twice the length of the sepals. 
There are many stamens. The pistil has three 
spreading styles. Pod is three-celled, with many 
seeds. 



102 



ST. JOHN'S WORT 




though farm- 
very trouble- 
their fields / 
of the soil. 



JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

In all the vacant 
lots and along 
the roadsides, 
in meadows 
and wherever 
you go, you see 
the bright yel- 
low flowers of 
St. John's Wort. 
You like the 
brightness of it, 
ers will tell you that it is a 
some weed, getting into 
and taking all the goodness 
St. John's Wort is like a 

103 



104 ST. JOHN'S WORT 

tramp from over the seas, and a most 
persistent one, as he wants full posses- 
sion wherever he takes root, and crowds 
out plants that are perhaps more desirable. 
How proudly and almost insolently he 
stands, sending out branches in every 
direction and lifting up his clusters of yel- 
low flowers as though they were the most 
beautiful things imaginable. 

There are many stories told about this 
otherwise uninteresting plant. Once it 
was thought to keep away evil spirits, and 
it was also used as medicine. It does not 
appeal to your imagination much, and 
you would scornfully refuse to include it 
among the flowers in your hand, but you 
like to see the yellow flowers along the 
road as you drive by. Tou wonder how 
it spreads all over a field in such a short 
time, spilling over, as it seems, into the 



ST. JOHN'S WORT 105 

road itself. You are told that under the 
ground are runners spreading out busily 
to start new shrubby plants, and as each 
one sends out several runners you can see 
that it would not take long for a field to 
be covered with St. John's Wort. Wouldn't 
you like to take a look under the ground 
and see all the roots of trees and plants, 
the runners and hidden flowers, and the 
homes of animals and insects that live 
below the surface of the ground ? Some 
of these underground homes are most 
wonderful. No doubt you have seen 
pictures of ants at work making their 
marvellously constructed dwellings, and 
have read about them. We should be 
much astonished at the size of tree roots, 
I am sure, if we could see below the ground 
as well as above. 



WILD ORANGE-RED LILY: WOOD LILY 

Lily Family Lilium Philadelphicum 

JUNE— JULY 

Found in woods. The lilies grow from a bulb. 
The stem is one or two feet high, leafy. Leaves 
are lance-shaped, in whorls of five to eight. The 
flowers are red or orange-red spotted with 
purple, open bell-shaped, large, erect, at end of 
stem. The perianth is of six divisions, widely 
separated and on slender claws, honey-bearing 
groove beginning at base. There are six stamens 
with long, narrow anthers, attached at one point 
so that they swing to and fro. Pistil has a long 
style and three stigmas, or lobes to the style. 
Pod is oblong, packed with two rows of flattened 
soft-coated seeds in each cell. 



106 



WILD ORANGE-RED LILY 




JUNE — JULY 

Up and up the 
steep mountain path 
you had climbed, 
and your feet just 
ached, and you were 
so tired and thirsty, it 
seemed as though you 
could drink a whole 
river dry. You really 
thought the mountain- 
top must be miles 
and miles up in the 
sky, almost up to the 
moon. Mother had 
hesitated about let- 



107 



108 WILD ORANGE-RED LILY 

ting you take the long walk, but finally 
was persuaded after you had told her 
how big and strong you were, and 
showed her how easily your feet could 
climb. Now you almost wished you had 
stayed at home with Nurse, — when all 
at once, through the dearest little opening 
in the woods, you saw a group of the most 
beautiful Red Lilies, like a gleam of fire 
against the dark green of the trees. How 
your heart leaped for joy; — your feet 
forgot to be tired and you ran as fast as 
you could to get nearer to these treasures. 
Joy of joys, near at hand was the most 
enchanting little spring bubbling up — it 
looked as though the water came right 
out of the rock, and how deliriously cold 
it was ! Wasn't that the best drink of 
water you ever had, and didn't you 
thank the Lilies for showing it to you? 




WILD ORANGE-RED LILY 



WILD ORANGE-RED LILY 109 

How carefully you picked two or three 
of the Lilies to take home. You loved 
the bright orange-red color, it made you 
think of a flame, and you thought it very 
beautiful to be dotted with dark purple 
spots, — this combination of color de- 
lighted your eye. Since that day you have 
often found Wood Lilies, and they always 
give you a feeling of joy. 

You notice that the perianth, or outer 
part of the flower, has a curious way 
of narrowing down toward the lower 
part. You are sure that the Lilies in 
your garden are not like this, — but they 
are unlike in color, too. The whorled 
leaves of Wood Lily are interesting to 
you. You imagine that they are playing 
" Ring-around-a-rosy " around the stem, 
and you spin the stem in your lipoids 
to make them go faster. 



DOGBANE 

Dogbane Family Apocynum androscemifolium 

JUNE — JULY 

Grows along thickets. Branches forked and 
widely spreading, with very tough fibrous bark, 
juice milky, sticky. Leaves opposite, somewhat 
egg-shaped, with short petioles or leaf-stalks. 
Flowers small, pink, veined with a deeper pink, 
fragrant, growing in loose clusters at the ends of 
branches. Corolla bell-shaped with five spreading 
lobes. Calyx, five-lobed, small. There are five 
stamens attached to the base of the corolla. Pistil 
without a style, stigma large, egg-shaped. The 
seeds have a long tuft of silky down at one end. 
They are in long and slender pods, each of which 
contains many seeds. 



no 



DOGBANE 




JUNE — JULY 

Such a 
tangle of 
bushes and 
shrubs grew 
on the steep 
bank between 
the road and 
the railroad track ! 
Hosts of treasures 
you found there, — and 
how T mysteriously your 
stocking knees became full of 
holes. One day after a wild 
scramble down the bank you 
discovered some lovely little pink flowers 



111 



112 DOGBANE 

growing in loose clusters on a high plant 
which was still not quite a bush. Each 
flower was like a pretty little bell the 
color of a rose, veined so delicately with 
a deeper pink. To your delight they 
were fragrant as well as pretty — treas- 
ures indeed. You carefully picked a long 
branch to take to Mother, and found that 
your hands were sticky with the milk-like 
juice from the stems. Nevertheless, you 
bore your precious find safely through 
the tangle of bushes, and were all eager- 
ness to know its name. Surely such a 
delight as this should have a beautiful 
name like " Aurora Borealis," which to 
your fancy had the most enchanting 
sound — it was so hard to say. How 
surprised, and, it must be confessed, 
disgusted you were to hear that your 
treasure went under the name of Dogbane. 



DOGBANE 113 

It was disappointing, but when you were 
told that once the plant was considered 
poisonous to dogs, you saw the reason for 
the name, and resolved to keep your little 
dog, Gipsy, away from these flowers. How 
anxiously you watched him all day after 
finding the pretty blossoms of Dogbane, 
for he might have gone too close to the 
plant. You told your fears to Mother, 
who soon reassured you, and told you not 
to be afraid, for Gipsy would know better 
than to eat these flowers. Then you 
rejoiced once more in the fragrant pink 
bells. 



WATER-LILY 

Water-Lily Family Castalia odorata 

Nymphcea odorata 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

In ponds and slow streams. The rootstock is 
thick, simple, or with few branches. The leaves 
are floating, circular in shape, or nearly so, cleft 
on one side, green and shining above, purple or 
red beneath. Petioles and peduncles are slender, 
with four main air channels. The flowers are 
white or tinged with pink, broad. The calyx is 
of four sepals, green outside and white within. 
The corolla is of many petals, gradually passing 
into stamens. The stamens are numerous, the 
outside ones with large petal-like filaments and 
short anthers, the inside ones with long and 
narrow filaments and longer anthers. The pistil 
is compound. The fruit ripens under water. 

114 



WATER-LILY 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 




If Arbutus is the 
breath of spring, surely Water 
Lilies express the whole beauty 
of summer. Can you ever forget 
the pond dotted here and there 
with the big white beauties ? Pure as the 



115 



116 WATER-LILY 

whitest snow, with fragrance that seems the 
most delightful thing in the world, they 
fill you with happiness. You stretch 
out your little arms and would gather 
them all. No matter how much self- 
restraint one exercises in regard to other 
flowers, it is almost impossible to leave 
a pond where the Lilies grow, without 
capturing every one of the lovely things. 
" Water Nymphs " they are sometimes 
called, — isn't it a good name for them? 
How gracefully they seem to float on the 
surface of the water, surrounded by many 
flat round leaves, or pads, which look as 
though they were made of wax. Did you 
ever notice that these pads are red or pur- 
ple underneath instead of green? 

What long, long stems they have, like 
hollow rubber tubes. When you pick the 
Lilies you have to put your hand way down 



WATER-LILY 117 

in the water, and then the stems are not 
easy to break. How proud you are to 
take a handful of these lovely blossoms to 
Mother ! You discover that they go to 
sleep in the afternoon, but the next morn- 
ing they are awake again and wide open 
to catch all the sunlight, and you linger 
over them lovingly, drinking in their pure 
beauty and delicious fragrance. 

A WATER-LILY 

The queen of the fairies, I do believe, 
Crossed over the brook on midsummer 

eve, 
For here in the rushes she left afloat 
Her little, wee, ivory, gold-lined boat. 

— Author Unknown. 



FIREWEED 

Evening Primrose Family Chamcenerion angustifolium 

(Gray) Epilobium angustifolium 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

Found in dry soil, often very abundant after 
forest fires. Erect, rather stout, sometimes 
branched. The leaves are alternate, with very 
short petioles, lance-shaped, sharp pointed at tip, 
narrower at base. The flowers are pink-purple, 
growing in long racemes at top of the stems. 
The four calyx parts drop on before the fruit 
ripens. Corolla is of four petals, spreading, 
broadest across the middle, or above. There are 
eight stamens, with anthers oblong, and fila- 
ments larger at the base than at the top. The 
united styles of the pistil are slender ; the stigma 
is four-lobed ; the seeds are smooth, numerous, 
and have a long coma or tuft of hairs at one 
end. 

118 




FIREWEED 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

The meadows were 
ablaze with Fireweed the 
day that you took the 
little sail-boat across 
the bay to what you 
called the "Enchanted 
Isle. 7 ' As you looked 
from the boat you 
could not imagine 
what these tall nod- 
ding masses of flowers 
were, and you were 
most eager to land 
so that you might 
find out. 

119 



120 FIREWEED 

The little island where these meadows 
were was such a delightful place, one 
always felt like Robinson Crusoe or Chris- 
topher Columbus on exploring expedi- 
tions — and how many curious things and 
wonderful treasures were to be found 
there ! The land sloped gently back from 
the dearest little pebbly beach, on which, 
by the way, you found strange jewels of 
richest, rarest colors, more precious to 
you than diamonds or rubies. The mead- 
ows beyond soon lost themselves in an 
enchanted forest, the home, you were 
sure, of numbers of giants, elves, and 
strange beings, marvellous to dream about, 
but dreadful to think of meeting. 

These woods had recently been partly 
burned, and now in the path of the 
flames, and indeed all through the mead- 
ows, were masses of Fireweed. Strange 



FIREWEED 121 

that you had never discovered this plant 
before; but then, one made new discov- 
eries at every visit to the island. You 
did not care for the flowers to take home, 
as they did not look nearly as pretty when 
you stood close beside them, but you were 
interested to see how many flowers grew 
in the long raceme, those in full bloom at 
the bottom and buds of all sizes above. 
It seemed to you like a flame, beginning 
at the lower part and sweeping upward, 
dying out below as it reached the top. 
The color of the flowers did not please 
you; you would much have preferred a 
bright scarlet or orange to this peculiar 
purplish pink. You like the name of 
Fireweed better than the one that this 
plant is often called, — Willow Herb, — 
though you are struck by the resemblance 
of the leaves to those of the willow tree. 



MILKWORT 

Milkwort Family (Gray) Polygala viridescens 

Polygala sanguinea 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

Found in fields and meadows. Stem some- 
what angled, erect, six to fifteen inches high, 
smooth, leafy, branching above. There are no 
leaves at base ; the stem leaves are oblong or 
linear oblong, with a very small point. The 
flower-heads are round, becoming oval, rounded 
at end. The flower-stalks are short, flowers rose- 
purple. The sepals are very unequal, the two 
side ones, called wings, large and like petals; the 
other three small, two on the lower and one on 
the upper side of the blossom. The corolla is of 
three petals united into a tube which is split on 
the back. There are eight or six stamens. The 
seed is hairy. 

122 



MILKWORT 



JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

You have found 
these bright little 
flowers in so many 
places, in damp 
ground near the sea- 
shore, in dry meadows 
almost hidden in the 
grass, and even on the 
hills, so you feel very well 
acquainted with them. Once 
you thought they were clover 
heads, and indeed many people 
are fooled by them, though they are 
very different from members of the 
Pulse Family, to which clover belongs. 




123 



124 MILKWORT 

The flowers of Milkwort are extremely 
difficult to understand, the construction 
is so peculiar, but look carefully at them; 
some day you will perhaps want to know 
them better. 

There is one meadow where you always 
find Milkwort in great profusion all sum- 
mer, beginning with the time of the Dai- 
sies and lasting until the cool days, when 
Gentian opens its fringed lashes and 
peeps up at the sky. You love the little 
blossoms of the Milkwort, though they 
seldom form a part of the bouquets you 
gather for Mother. They seem so much 
prettier to you in the grass, adding a 
touch of delicate color here and there. 
Sometimes they are quite a bright pink, 
but you have found them also in varying 
shades of pinkish purple, and even almost 
white. You sometimes find smaller bios- 



MILKWORT 125 

soins which you are sure must belong to 
the same family, though they look like 
the baby brothers and sisters of Milk- 
wort. 

A cousin which you often find along 
sandy roadsides is very well known to 
you by sight, though you wish it had an- 
other name besides Polygala Polygama, 
which is very long for such little flowers, 
and very hard to say. The flowers of this 
dainty plant are of a pretty, delicate, 
purplish pink, growing in a raceme at the 
top of the stem. Besides these flowers 
are some below the ground, that we can- 
not see, of course, and that are not attrac- 
tive to look at, but very useful to the 
plant. These hidden flowers are called 
Gleistogomous ; that is a long name for 
very small flowers, isn't it ? 



WILD CARROT 

Carrot Family Daucus carota 

Parsley Family (Gray) 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

Found in fields and waste places. Root 
fleshy, deep, conic. Lower leaves many times 
divided into long and narrow parts, upper leaves 
smaller, less divided. Involucre of several leaf- 
like bracts, invohicels of many entire or toothed 
bracts. Flowers in compound umbels, two to 
four inches broad, rays numerous, crowded, inner 
ones shorter than the outside ones, very slender 
flower-stalks. Flowers white, central one of each 
umbel often purple or red. Petals obovate, with 
tips bent inwards. Five stamens, and two styles 
to the pistil. Umbels very concave, like birds' 
nests, in fruit. Fruit covered with bristly 
prickles. 

126 



WILD CARROT 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

" Birds' nests" 
you called tliem, 
and were very much 
astonished and even 
indignant when one 
day some one told 
you that these flower 
friends were a great 
nuisance in the fields. 
You thought that 
every one ought to 
love the lace-like 
flower clusters just 
as you did. The half- 
closed ones are your 

127 










A, 



* &i 







128 WILD CARROT 

special delight, for they do look like 
birds' nests. Long hours you have spent 
playing with them, tilling shrubs and 
bushes with the dainty little nests, 
hoping that some bird would come and 
make one of them his home. Did you 
ever look closely at the flower clusters? 
How many tiny flowers it takes to make 
one big "Umbel," as this flower arrange- 
ment is called. Indeed the whole is 
formed from little " Umbellets " consist- 
ing of many flowers. In the centre is a 
tiny dark red flower oftentimes. What 
dainty lace parasols these would make 
for the queen of the fairies ! 

The leaves are finely cut, too, and made 
up of many leaflets. Wild Carrot is the 
name we most often hear for these flowers, 
though they are sometimes called Queen 
Anne's Lace, and sometimes Birds' Nests. 



WILD CARROT 

In the fields and blooming meadows 
Among the grasses green, 
And the dainty pink-faced clover, 
Fair ladies can be seen, 
Decked out in snowy laces, 
Heirlooms of nature old, 
" They've long been in the family," 
Flower gossips have been told. 
***** 

Gauzy gowned in fairy network 

And caps of finest lace, 

Dames colonial of the roadside 

In the summer find a place, 

In nature's glad procession, 

That pay all homage due 

To their wise and bounteous mother, 

They're proud and loyal too ! 

— Ray Laurance. 
129 



BOUNCING BET 

Pink Family Saponaria officinalis 

ALL SUMMER 

Found along roadsides, waste lands, and in 
gardens. It is rather a stout herb, smooth, from 
one to two feet high. The leaves are three to 
five ribbed, the lower ones oval, or egg-shaped, 
the upper ones lanceolate, or lance-shaped. The 
flowers are clustered, regular though usually 
double, pale rose, or white. The calyx is cylin- 
der shaped or oblong, not angled, five toothed. 
The corolla is of five or more petals, notched at 
the end. There are ten stamens, and one pistil 
with two styles. The pod is four-valved. 



130 




BOUNCING BET 



ALL SUMMER 



The honest faces 
of Bouncing Bet 
smile up at us 
from highways and 
byways. What a 
cheery, bright smile 
it is, and how happy 
you are to welcome these 
country lassies. They are 
often so hospitable that 
they come out even 
into the road to meet 
us, with disastrous results to 
the fresh pink dresses with 
which they started. The dust 

131 



132 BOUNCING BET 

clings to them so that we can imagine 
their bright cheeks besmirched, and 
dresses soiled and torn as though they 
had been making mud pies, and having 
hilarious games of hide-and-seek among 
the brambles. All along the roadside 
you find them, near old houses and farm 
buildings, and wherever they can find 
foothold. 

Once you found one plant growing all 
by itself near the road. The flower was 
very large and important looking, with 
many petals and very fragrant, almost 
like a Carnation Pink. You wondered 
why it had travelled so far from its com- 
panions ; did it get tired of the games and 
noisy plays of its sisters and cousins, or 
did it try to go off by itself, where it could 
grow bigger, and pretend to be something 
very different from the common Bouncing 



BOUNCING BET 133 

Bet ? Whatever had caused it to leave its 
cheery companions, there it was standing 
in solitary grandeur, apparently forgetting 
its hosts of relatives that were indeed out 
of sight. 

Bouncing Bet has a peculiar juice that 
lathers like soap, and has been said to take 
the place of soap sometimes. Strange 
that with soap right at hand these sturdy 
maids should allow themselves to get so 
dusty and soiled, isn't it? But you see 
they are so hospitable and social that 
they spend their days close by the road, 
to smile at all the passers-by. What 
wonder that the dust from many wagon 
wheels soon covers them ; but it does 
not make them lose their cheeriness, 
so you may always be sure of a wel- 
come from these friends. 



WINTEKGREEN 

Heath Family Gaultheria procumlens 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

In evergreen and low woods. Long and slen- 
der underground runners send up stems three to 
five inches high. Leaves are alternate, broad, 
evergreen, spicy, aromatic, and grow at top of 
stem. Flowers are white, nodding, usually two 
from the axils of the leaves. The calyx is small, 
five-lobed. Corolla, oblong or urn-shaped, with 
five small lobes at the end. There are ten sta- 
mens with anthers opening at the top. One 
pistil. In fruiting, the calyx becomes thick and 
fleshy, so that it looks like a berry, but has a 
dry pod inside, containing many seeds. 



134 



WINTERGREEN 



JUNE — SEPTEMBER 



All around you in the pine woods the 
ground seemed carpeted with these shiny- 
green leaves. You stopped to pick a few, 
and found some bright red 
^ v berries which you at once 

recognized as 
Checkerberries. 




135 



136 WINTERGREEN 

What delight it was to find them growing ! 
They tasted so much better to you there 
in the woods than ever before. For the 
first time you noticed that each berry had 
a five-pointed star on top of it. "What 
made it?" you asked Mother, and were 
told that it was formed by the points of 
the calyx, or outer part of the flower, 
which had thickened and turned into this 
pretty red berry. Close at hand were 
some of the white blossoms, and you 
looked hard at them, wondering how long 
it would be before they, too, became red 
berries. 

Another day you were walking along a 
little hill where the ground was quite 
sandy and rocky, and again you saw the 
little Wintergreen plants. By this time 
you felt that they were old friends, and 
were sure that you would recognize the 



WINTERGREEN 137 

leaves, flowers, or berries wherever you 
saw them. 

The little reddish green leaves have 
such a delicious flavor ; but you discover 
that the big green ones are quite tough 
and hard, and sometimes bite your tongue, 
they are so strong and spicy. It is from 
these leaves that the oil of Wintergreen is 
extracted. You know the flavor of Win- 
tergreen very well, don't you, as it is often 
used in candy ? It is sometimes used as 
a medicine, too. One of the cousins of 
Wintergreen is a very dear friend of yours, 
the Arbutus. Wintergreen is an ever- 
green, too, and belongs to the Heath 
Family. 



INDIAN PIPE 

Indian Pipe Family Monotropa unijiora 

JUNE — AUGUST 

Found in rich woods. Parasitic, feeding on 
roots of other plants. No green foliage, stem 
white, like wax, with bracts in place of leaves. 
Flowers waxy-white, nodding, one at the top of 
each stem. Calyx of two or more bract-like 
scales, which fall off before the seeds ripen. 
Corolla of five white petals, wedge-shaped, look- 
ing like the bracts of the stem. There are ten 
stamens with anthers opening across the top, 
and one pistil, with a thick style, and stigma like 
a disk, somewhat depressed. The pod is four- or 
five-celled, with tiny seeds looking like fine saw- 
dust. 



138 



INDIAN PIPE 



JUNE — AUGUST 



Once when you were 
walking through the woods 
you came suddenly 
upon a group of 
these pale, ghost- 
like plants. You hardly 
believed they were grow- 
ing, but in your eager- 
ness to see, broke some 
of them off. To your 
horror the delicate white 
things began to turn 
black before you could 
get back to ask Mother 
what their name was, ~- 




139 



140 INDIAN PIPE 

and they felt so cold and dead in your 
hand that you did not like them. Once 
you picked up a little toad and he was 
cold, too, but it was a nice, live coldness, 
not like these curious plants. They had 
a queer coldness about them that made 
shivers run down your back, and you had 
no desire to pick any more. You wonder 
what makes them so white and cold ; if 
once they were pink or blue and nodded 
in the bright sunlight ; if they were 
naughty and were sent into the dark 
woods for punishment, where the sun 
could not reach them ; did their pretty 
color leave them, and did they then 
grow white and stiff, like pipes made of 
ivory ? 

You remember that Arbutus, when it 
grows under the leaves away from the 
sunlight, is whiter than that which grows 



INDIAN PIPE 141 

in the open, and you mean sometime to 
try planting the Indian Pipe in your little 
garden to see if it will come up blue or 
pink, and not be so cold. 

Tou think that a summer spent on the 
beach might do these pale flowers good, 
too, when you remember how brown you 
looked at the end of last summer. You 
try to imagine how the Indian Pipe would 
look if it were as sunburned as you were 
when you came home from the beach. 
Wouldn't it be funny to find a whole row 
of little brown pipes growing in the sand ? 



MILKWEED 

Milkweed Family (Gray) Asclepias Syriaca 

Asclepias Cornuti 

JUNE — AUGUST 

Fields and waste places. Stem stout, usually 
simple, three to five feet high, downy. Leaves 
are oblong, ovate, or oval, spreading, with stout 
petioles. Flowers in umbels, greenish purple. 
Calyx with very short tube or none, its lobes 
separate or overlapping in the bud. Corolla five- 
lobed or five-cleft. There is a five-lobed or 
parted crown between the corolla and stamens. 
Each hood of the corona or crown has an in- 
curved horn inside. Five stamens with fila- 
ments joined to the corolla near the base. Pis- 
til with very thick stigma. Pod or follicle 
contains many flat seeds, each with a coma or 
long tuft of down attached to one end. 

142 




MILKWEED 

JUNE — AUGUST 




You have a 
strange indif- 
ference to the 
flowers of Milk- 
weed, and, in 
fact, have hardly noticed any- 

143 



144 MILKWEED 

thing about them except that they grow 
in large clusters, so heavy that they 
always seem drooping. Haven't you seen 
how fond the bees appear to be of these 
flower masses ? They are really very 
interesting if you look closely, though 
botanists tell us that the flowers of Milk- 
weed are hard to understand unless one 
has studied a long, long time. The sta- 
mens are arranged in such a way that 
when bees and insects go to the flowers 
for honey, they carry off the pollen in 
what seem like tiny, tiny saddle-bags, 
formed of two masses of pollen joined 
by the finest of threads. Can't you 
imagine the bees going shopping for 
more honey, and leaving these funny little 
bags of pollen in payment at the next 
flower " market " ? This is exactly what 
they do, and I am sure you w T ill watch 



MILKWEED 145 

eagerly the next time you see bees buzz- 
ing about the Milkweed. 

The pods of Milkweed are your dear 
friends already, aren't they ? How often 
you have gathered them, getting your 
hands sticky with the milky juice, but 
rejoicing in the lovely silky fluff found 
inside, In your own mind you were sure 
long ago that here the fairies found gos- 
samer of which to make new wings, or 
to repair their old ones when they were 
slightly torn among the brambles through 
which the fairies must sometimes have 
to go. 



MILKWEED 

Little weavers of the summer, 

With sunbeam shuttle bright, 
And loom unseen by mortals, 

You are busy day and night, 
Weaving fairy threads as filmy 

And soft as cloud swans, seen 
In broad blue sky-land rivers, 

Above earth's fields of green. 

Your treasures you are hiding 

In emerald velvet pouch, 
You like no curious mortals 

To gaze on them, I vouch ; , 
But your woven fairy fabric 

And magic spell concealed 
In every tiny fibre, 

To nature's touch will yield. 

146 



MILKWEED 147 

The clasp of pouch unfastened, 

Each tiny strand takes flight ; 
For they're surely downy feathers 

Of cloud swans soft and white, 
That, caught on sunbeams' shuttle, 

Tho' you deftly wove with care, 
Dame Nature has betrayed you, — 

See, they're scattered on the air ! 

And no doubt the sky-swan feathers, 

With magic power endowed, 
Are wafted by the wind fays 

Back to the realms of cloud ; 
That fairy-land enchanting, 

With rivers blue and deep, 
Oh, little roadside weavers 

Who cannot secrets keep ! 

— Ray Laurance. 



WILD MORNING GLORY 

Hedge Bindweed 

Morning Glory Family Convolvulus sepium 

JUNE — AUGUST 

Fields and thickets, usually in moist soil. 
Come from slender roots tocks. Stems trailing 
or twining, three to ten feet long. Leaves with 
slender petioles, halberd-shaped, acute or taper- 
pointed at top. Flowers, one on each flower- 
stalk, white with pink stripes, or white. Calyx 
with five nearly equal sepals, enclosed by two 
large bracts. Corolla, funnel-formed, the border 
fi ve-lobed, five-angled, or entire. The stamens 
are inserted on the tube of corolla. The pistil 
has a long, slender style and two stigmas. The 
pod is four-seeded. 



148 



WILD MORNING 
GLORY 

Hedge Bindweed 
JUNE — AUGUST 

You like the name of 
Wild Morning Glories for 
these dainty flowers far 
better than Hedge Bind- 
weed, the one they are 
so often called. You love 
your own Morning Glories ; 
every morning in summer they 
peep in at your window, nod- 
ding their pretty bell-shaped 
flowers in friendliest greeting, 
and they are among your 
earliest friends. 




149 



150 WILD MORNING GLORY 

Their dear cousins, the Wild Morning 
Glories, you often find growing in waste 
places, and you love their delicate pink 
and white blossoms. You notice that the 
leaves are not just like your Morning 
Glories at home, which are almost heart- 
shaped, while these are more pointed, like 
an arrow. You wonder why this is so, 
and can think of no better reason than 
that these are wild flowers and perhaps 
have to have arrows just as Indians and 
other wild men do, while your own Morn- 
ing Glories at home are so full of love 
and happiness that their leaves take the 
shape of hearts. You like to think that 
this is the reason, and you have many 
fancies about Morning Glories that you 
cannot put into words. How fresh and 
bright they are every morning, — and how 
queerly they shrivel up after blooming. 



WILD MORNING GLORY 151 

They almost seem like buds again, but 
you know they will not bloom, for you 
have tried to open them, and found that 
the bell-shaped corolla dropped off instead 
of blossoming out. 

A stone wall covered with Wild Morn- 
ing Glories is always a delight to you, 
and you wish you could carry home great 
handfuls of it to Mother; but the blossoms 
wilt quickly, and you do not try to pick 
them now. The stems are very twining 
and twist round and round so that often 
they seem braided, but these plants seem 
much better behaved than their cousin 
named Dodder, and do not cling to bushes 
so closely as to take their sap. 

Down by the sea you often find great 
masses of another cousin called European 
Bindweed, which looks much like the 
Wild Morning Glories you know so well. 



MULLEIN 

Figwort Family Verbascum Thapsus 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

Very common in fields. The stem is thick 
and woolly, tall. The leaves are oblong, light 
green, soft and velvety. Flowers grow in a 
long, dense raceme or spike at top of the stem, 
and are yellow. The calyx is five-parted, 
the corolla of five wide, rounded, nearly equal 
divisions. There are ten stamens, five bearing 
anthers, all the filaments, or three of them, 
woolly. One pistil with style expanding and 
flat at apex. The pod is globular, and contains 
many seeds. 



152 




MULLEIN 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

All around in the fields you 
see clusters of these velvety 
leaves, like pale green rosettes, 
and sometimes from the centre 
of the rosette grows a tall, 
^Wf/'' a I thick spike with leaves 
'■■^SLdtr first on one side and then 

on the other, and 



9p 



r 










153 



154 MULLEIN 

many pale yellow flowers clustered at the 
top. Some one has told you that these 
flowers only bloom w T hen the Mullein 
plant is two years old ; the younger 
plants have only the green velvet rosettes. 
How soft the leaves are ! You pick them, 
two or three at a time, and rub them 
against your cheek. Such a pretty shade 
of green they are, too, you wish you could 
make a whole dress of them for your dolly. 
Once you saw a wonderful moth almost 
the same color, and you thought him 
very beautiful. 

For some reason you like the leaves of 
Mullein far better than the flowers. Tou 
cannot think of any other plant with 
leaves of such soft velvet, Mullein be- 
longs to the same family as your dear 
Butter-and-Eggs, though you would hardly 
believe it, would you ? They certainly do 



MULLEIN 155 

not look much alike. In flower families, 
as in families of children, all the cousins 
do not look alike, though there is usually 
a resemblance in one way or another. 



The Mullein's yellow candles burn 
Over the heads of the dry sweet fern ; 

All summer long the Mullein weaves 
His soft and thick and woolly leaves. 

— Margaret Deland. 



BUTTER-AND-EGGS 

Figwort Family Linaria Linaria 

Linaria vulgaris 

JUNE — OCTOBER 

Fields and waste places. The rootstocks are 
short. Stems slender, very erect, leafy, smooth. 
The leaves are long and narrow, without petioles, 
pointed at both ends, alternate. Flowers are in 
dense racemes, light yellow and orange. The 
calyx is five-parted. Corolla is irregular, spurred 
at base, two-lipped, the upper one erect, two- 
lobed, the lower spreading, three-lobed. The 
base forms a palate often nearly closing the 
throat. There are four stamens in two pairs, 
filaments slender. The pistil has a slender style. 
The seeds are numerous. 



156 



BUTTER- AND-EGGS 

Toad-Flax 
JUNE — OCTOBER 

11 Butter-and-Eggs, Butter- 
and-Eggs," you sing as you 
run along the road and see 
whole masses of these bright 
flowers nodding at you, 
almost begging to be picked. 
You know that it will do no 
harm if you gather great XI 

handfuls of them, for they 1\ 

are everywhere ; — stretch- 
ing along the road as far 
as you can see, peeping at 
you over the stone walls, and 
filling the meadows beyond 
with their brightness. 

157 




158 BUTTER-AND-EGGS 

How you love the yellow and orange 
blossoms. You feel that the bees and 
the butterflies must love them, too, and 
you watch a big bee while he goes from 
flower to flower, gathering honey from the 
long spur. 

You pinch the flowers to make them 
open their mouths, and you play they are 
funny dragons. Father tells you that 
sometimes these flowers are called Snap- 
dragon and that they have another name, 
Toad-flax, besides the long, hard name 
that your little tongue cannot say. When 
Father tells you this, you play that all the 
flowers are little toads, and you make 
them open their mouths again. But you 
like your own name for them best, because 
the flowers are just the color of butter and 
eggs. You count all the blossoms in one 
cluster, and notice that the baby ones are 




BUTTER AND EGGS 



BUTTER-AND-EGGS 159 

at the top, and you feel sure that the big 
ones are below to keep the babies from 
falling. 

Toad-flax belongs to a big flower family 
named Figwort. You often see its cousins, 
Mullein and Foxglove, and in Grand- 
mother's garden there is such a big 
bed of Snapdragons, red, yellow, and all 
colors. These are cousins, too. Once 
you tried to have a bed of Snapdragon in 
your little garden, and you planted seeds, 
oh, so carefully, thinking your garden 
would be even prettier than Grandmoth- 
er's. Alas ! the gardener came and raked 
over your garden, not knowing you had 
planted anything. Your grief was deep, 
but after awhile some of the Snapdrag- 
ons really did come up, scattered all over 
the garden in such a funny way that 
they made you laugh. 



PICKEREL-WEED 

Pickerel -Weed Family Pontederia cordata 

JUNE — OCTOBER 

In shallow ponds and streams. The stem is 
from one to two feet high. Leaves are heart- 
shaped, or lance-arrow shaped. The flowers 
grow in a spike at end of the stem, and are 
purplish blue with greenish yellow spot on 
upper lobe. Each flower remains open only 
one day. Perianth is of six divisions irregularly 
united below in a tube. Three of the divisions 
form an upper lip, three-lobed ; the other divi- 
sions are more spreading. The six-ribbed base 
thickens, turns green, and encloses the fruit. 
There are six stamens, the three lower ones 
with filaments curving inwards, the three upper 
ones shorter. One pistil, and fruit one-celled, 
one-seeded. 

160 



PICKEREL-WEED 



JUNE — OCTOBER 



The first time 
erel-Weed you 




you saw Pick- 
were driving 
across a bridge 
with Father, over 
such a beautiful little 
pond. Do you remem- 
ber how you turned 
round to look at the 
water, and suddenly dis- 
covered a mass of blue 
flowers close by the shore ? 
" Oh, oh — Father," you cried, 
" please let me get out and see 
that water garden." As you 
ran back across the bridge and 

161 



162 PICKEREL-WEED 

came closer to the edge of the pond, you 
saw that the flowers grew in spikes from 
out a sheath-like leaf, and stood up very 
straight and tall, like soldiers with high 
blue caps. Such hosts of dragon flies 
were darting about, their wings seeming 
to catch a glint of blue from the flowers ! 
You went a little closer, almost to the 
water's edge — and then how disap- 
pointed you were to see that the flowers 
were not nearly so beautiful as they 
looked a little distance away. The blue 
caps were ragged and dingy-looking, for 
many of the flowers had bloomed and 
withered but were still on the stalk. 
Father told you that each flower lasted 
only one day, but every day new ones 
opened, so that there were always a great 
many in bloom, quite enough to make the 
whole edge of ponds and rivers look blue. 



PICKEREL-WEED 163 

You were very well satisfied to look at 
Pickerel-Weed from the bridge after this, 
where you could see whole masses of the 
blue, instead of many brown, withered 
flowers here and there among the fresh 
ones. 

You wonder why these blue flowers 
should be called Pickerel-Weed, as you 
don't see any resemblance to the pickerel 
that is in your "fish book" as you call it. 
Then some one tells you that it is because 
the pickerel and Pickerel-Weed both like 
the same shallow ponds, so you make up 
your mind to look for fish the next time 
you see these blue flowers, and decide to 
take some bent pins along in your pocket 
to catch a big pickerel for Mother. 



ORANGE HAWKWEED 

Chicory Family Hieracium aurantiacum 

Composite Family (Gray) 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

Found in fields, woods, and along roadsides. 
Stem leafless, or with one or two small leaves 
without petioles ; hairy, slender. Leaves at base 
of stem hairy, tufted, spatulate, or oblong, nar- 
rowed at base, entire, or sometimes slightly 
toothed. The flower heads have short peduncles, 
or stalks, and are in corymbs. The color is 
orange or red. The involucre has long and nar- 
row lance-shaped bracts, overlapping in two or 
three rows, hairy. Receptacle of head flat. 
Corolla of united petals with a long tube, and 
strap-shaped ray. Akenes oblong. Pappus, or 
down, a single row of slender brownish bristles. 



164 




ORANGE HAWKWEED 

JUNE — SEPTEMBER 

You thought at 
first that these bright 
orange-red flowers were pop- 
pies, as you drove by on the 
country road, but when Father 
stopped the carriage and you 
ran back to see them, 
you found they were 
something quite different. 
What hosts of 
them there were, 
and what a splen- 
dor of color ! you 
gathered a 
handful and 

165 



166 ORANGE HAWKWEED 

hurried back to the carriage, breathless. 
What were these new treasures ? You had 
never seen anything like them before. 

The bright flower heads were in clus- 
ters at the top of a stem covered with 
long, fine, black hairs. How curious it 
was ! You learned that the name was 
European or Orange Hawkweed, and also 
that it was a cousin of Dandelion and 
Chicory ; then it was even more interest- 
ing than before. The flower heads were 
made up of strap-shaped flowers, closely 
clustered, so that they made one blaze 
of color. The leaves were close to the 
ground, and they were hairy like the 
long, straight stem. 

Many times since that day you have 
looked for Orange Hawkweed, but have 
not happened to see any except in that 
one place. The gorgeous flame color de- 




ORANGE HAWKWEED 



ORANGE HAWKWEED 167 

lights your eye, and you hope every year 
to welcome these friends which are so 
closely related to other good friends of 
yours. The Composite Family is so large, 
and there are so many branches of it, that 
you are continually finding new members, 
or greeting old friends wherever you go. 

Orange Hawkweed has several other 
names ; it is sometimes called Devil's 
Paint-brush, and in England is called 
" Grimm the Collier." It has not been 
many years in this country, but in some 
places the farmers are already wishing it 
had not come at all, as it is getting troub- 
lesome in their fields. Strange that so 
many of your favorites are disliked by 
the farmers, isn't it ? but you see they 
are not thinking of the beauty of the 
flowers, but of the way the plants spread 
and threaten to drive out their crops. 



WHITE SWEET CLOVER 

Pulse or Pea Family Melilotus alba 

JUNE — NOVEMBER 

Runs wild in waste or cultivated ground. 
Has been cultivated for fodder. The stems are 
branching, tall, from three to six feet high. 
Leaves are of three leaflets, notched at the ends, 
the top one jointed with the common petiole 
above the side leaflets. Sweet-scented, especially 
after drying. The flowers are small, white, 
growing in slender racemes. The calyx is very 
small, the corolla of five petals, the standard, 
wings, and keel short. The pod is small, but 
larger than the calyx ; is globular, wrinkled, and 
contains one or two seeds. 



168 



WHITE SWEET CLOVER 



JUNE — NOVEMBER 

The field all crossed 
and criss-crossed by 
paths — some worn 
smooth and wide by 
the tread of many 
feet, others only faint 
suggestions, to your 
mind and imagina- 
tion the trails of 
Indians and wild 
beasts — was your 
special playground. Here 
how many Indian battles 
were fought, how many 
lions and tigers brought 

169 




170 WHITE SWEET CLOVER 

home in triumph after a long chase — 
what royal games were played! Here 
was the maze, in the centre of which 
lived the dreadful "Minotaur" whose 
hoarse, fierce growls and howls could be 
heard from afar. Even the brave " The- 
seus " was a little timid about venturing 
into his domain, which was guarded by 
Burdock sentinels, and hedged round by 
Sweet Clover. You sometimes regretted 
that this monster should be so surrounded 
by sweetness ; but what a perfect little 
room the bushes made ! It required 
courage to pass by the swarms of bees 
that always seemed to be hovering about, 
to say nothing of the fierce " Minotaur." 

You have a fondness for Sweet Clover, 
and often take home great bunches of it 
to dry and put in your drawer, for the 
fragrance is delightful, strongly remind- 



WHITE SWEET CLOVER 171 

ing you of the sweet grass used by the 
Indians in making baskets. Some one 
has told you that these dried flowers and 
leaves will keep away moths ; but you 
have never been able to persuade Mother 
to use them instead of camphor. 

Sometimes you find yellow Sweet Clo- 
ver, which grows on smaller bushes, but 
looks very much like the white. It is 
not as dear to you as your friend Sweet 
Clover of the " Jungle," and has not so 
many pleasant associations. Sweet Clo- 
ver is a relative of the fragrant honey 
clover of the meadows, and of many of 
your friends belonging to the Pulse or 
Pea Family. You remember that Wild 
Lupine belongs to this family, and your 
Wistaria that droops its graceful flower 
masses over the little balcony just outside 
your window. 



YARROW 

Thistle Family Achillea Millefolium 

Composite Family (Gray) 

JUNE — NOVEMBER 

Fields, bills, and along roadsides. Comes up 
year after year from horizontal rootstocks. The 
stems are simple or branched like corymbs, one 
to two feet high. The leaves from the base are 
petioled ; those on the stem without petioles, cut 
into fine, narrow divisions, slightly hairy or 
woolly. The flower heads are numerous in com- 
pound corymbs at the top of the stem, white or 
pink. The involucre with oblong bracts. The 
receptacle is nearly flat, or convex, chaffy. The 
ray flowers have pistils, but no stamens; the 
disk flowers are perfect ; the corollas are yellow, 
five-lobed. Akenes are oblong or obovate. 
There is no pappus (or thistle-down). 

172 



YARROW 



JUNE — NOVEMBER 

Whenever you see 
Yarrow it reminds you 
of the little lane at 
Grandmother's, down 
which you have so 
often gone to bring 
home the cows. What 
a dear lane it is, — the 
prettiest spot on the 
whole farm, you think. 
Here is where one 
finds the first wild 
roses, hosts of them, 
just begging to be 
picked, it seems ; and 




173 



1T4 YARROW 

all along the way are raspberry bushes, 
in the season just loaded down with 
luscious berries. Along the old gray 
fence barberries droop with their burden 
of coral, and if one has very sharp eyes it 
is possible to pick a basketful of wild 
strawberries in no time. All summer 
long Yarrow flourishes here as you have 
never found it elsewhere. What a homely, 
comfortable-looking herb it is, the flower 
clusters made up of ever so many little 
white flowers like Daisies, with white ray 
flowers and yellow centres. 

Once you found some pink Yarrow, 
and it was a pleasure to recognize an old 
friend in a new dress. You have looked 
many times along the lane, hoping to find 
more pink, and even some blue Yarrow, 
for you thought perhaps it would blossom 
in all colors. However, you have never 



YARROW 175 

found any more pink blossoms, and have 
now given up hopes of finding blue, as 
you realize that wild flowers usually stick 
to one color or variations of it. The 
leaves of Yarrow are pretty, very fernlike 
and lacy, they are so divided and subdi- 
vided. Yarrow is another cousin of Daisy 
and Black-eyed Susan, and numbers of 
your friends in the Composite Family. 
Just think what a big bouquet it would 
make if you should gather one of each 
member of this family. You cannot go 
into the fields or along the roads, or, in- 
deed, anywhere in the country, without 
seeing one or more of the cousins of Yar- 
row, some nearly related, others more 
distant, but still belonging to the same 
big family. 



YARROW— MILFOIL 

Everywhere the Yarrow grows ! 
Here and there the thistle blows, 
Here and there the barberries, 
By the brook the plumy fern ; 
We know where the lily is, 
Where the dear wild roses burn ; 
But the Yarrow everywhere 
Wanders on the common air. 

No one need to search for thee ; 
Even now thy leaf I see 
Peeping o'er my opened book, 
Throwing so fair a shadow down, 
So perfect, that I can but look, 
And, looking, find new wonder crown 
The bliss of beauty which before 
Taught my spirit to adore. 

176 



YARROW — MILFOIL 177 

In thy bitter odors blent 

Health we find, not discontent; 

In thy name a tender grief 

For that love once drowned in Yarrow, 

Stream that never gave relief 

To the faithful, " winsome marrow." 

Bitter Yarrow ! Flowing Yarrow ! 

Still lament thy winsome marrow ! 

Emblem of our equal land, 
Where men and women helpful stand, 
And love and labor, high and low. 
Type of the low ! Thou lovely plant ! 
Teach the proud-hearted how to know 
The sacred worth of nature's grant, 
The strength of bitterness, and the sweet 
Humility of beauty's feet. 

— Annie Fields. 



WHITE ALDER 

White Alder Family Clethra alnifolia 

Heath Family (Gray) 

JULY — AUGUST 

Swamps and wet woods, sometimes in dry soil. 
Shrubs three to ten feet high. Leaves green on 
both sides, obovate, narrowed at base, sharply 
toothed, with petioles, falling in the autumn. 
Flowers white, fragrant, in long, narrow racemes 
at ends of stems. Calyx with five lobes, remain- 
ing after the fruit is ripened. Corolla of five 
petals slightly united at base, falling before the 
fruit ripens. There are ten stamens with slen- 
der filaments, and anthers shaped like arrow- 
heads. The pistil has a slender style and three 
stigmas. 



178 



WHITE ALDER 

Sweet Pepper-Bush 
JULY — AUGUST 

More than a mile away 
across the downs you can hear 
the sea dashing itself 
furiously against the 
rocks, trying to make a 
passageway through to 
the peaceful harbor on 
the other side of the 
point. It is not always so 
wild; many times you have 
walked over the downs by 
your favorite path, and 
found the ocean in a gentle 
mood, playfully toying with 




173 



180 WHITE ALDER 

bits of seaweed as your kitten plays with 
a soft ball of wool.- 

How spicy and fragrant the air is with 
the delicious, unspeakable combination of 
salt breeze and the perfume of White Al- 
der, or Clethra, as you like to call it. 
You draw deep breaths, and wish you 
were twice as big, so that you could in- 
hale more of this fragrant air. Then 
what an inspiration it is to run over the 
little hills and down into the hollows be- 
tween — then a scramble up on to one of 
the high rocks that were kindly left here 
by Mother Nature, that one might take a 
survey of the ocean and harbor, and the 
dear, wide-spreading downs. The Clethra 
is ever present ; great masses of the 
bushes border the innumerable little 
paths that wind in and out, now losing 
themselves in an impassable bog, — im- 



WHITE ALDER 181 

passable, that is, except to the cows 
that one has a continual dread of meeting 
among the bushes, where their big heads 
and horns would indeed be formidable. 
The paths have the most charming way 
of seeming to be direct routes to the 
ocean, — how plainly we can hear the 
roaring, and the sea is now really close 
at hand, — when suddenly, with a little 
twist, the path ends, leaving us to find 
our way out as best we may from Clethra 
and Bayberry bushes. We stop to gather 
a few sprays of the flowers to take to 
Mother, and a handful of the Bayberry 
leaves that have such an agreeable smell 
when crushed, — and then we try another 
path. 



KNOTWEED 

Buckwheat Family Polygonum Pennsylvanicum 

JULY — SEPTEMBER 

Found in moist soil. The stems are from one 
to three feet high, branching. Leaves are lance- 
olate, alternate, with stipules in the form of thin 
and dry sheaths. The flowers grow in oblong, 
thick, erect spikes, and are rose color. There is 
no corolla. There are eight stamens, a little 
protruding ; and the one pistil has a two-cleft 
style. The fruit is an akene, a kind of dry, 
one-seeded fruit, which looks like a seed, though 
the true seed is inside the outer covering. 



182 



KNOTWEED 




JULY — SEPTEMBER 

Do you remember 
the time you were visit- 
ing way out in the coun- 
try and how you dis- 
covered such quantities 
of pretty pink flowers 
like bunches of coral 
beads ? They 
grew near 
the old barn, around 
the well, and even in 
some parts of the garden, and 
were contemptuously 
called weeds by old 
John, the man who milked the cows. 

183 



184 KNOTWEED 

You were very fond of going about with 
John. He knew ever so many interesting 
stories about the birds and bees, and 
made cold shivers run down your back 
when he told you snake stories. One 
day you discovered the Pink Knotweed, 
and liked it so much that you gathered a 
handful, taking it to old John to ask him 
if he knew the name of these growing 
coral beads. How disgusted you were 
when he called them weeds! "Huh," 
he said, " Them's nothing but Knotweed." 
You thought the little flowers ought to 
have a prettier name, and for a few min- 
utes your faith in John was shaken, but 
then you thought that, after all, the little 
flowers did look like pink knots, and it 
was not such a bad name for them. 

They grow in thick, spiked clusters, 
and make many a neglected corner bright 



KNOTWEED 185 

in old gardens, or about the dooryard of 
old houses. Sometimes you find another 
Knotweed growing beside ponds or little 
streams, sometimes right in the water. 
One of the Knotweed cousins grows in 
the sand near the sea — you have often 
seen it, haven't you ? Knotweed belongs 
to the Buckwheat Family, and is related 
to the Buckwheat grown by farmers, to be 
ground into flour. You have eaten cakes 
made of Buckwheat, haven't you ? 



WILD MINT 

Mint Family Mentha Canadensis 

JULY — OCTOBER 

In damp or wet places. Spread by running 
rootstocks. The stems are square. Leaves are 
aromatic, ovate, or pointed, on short petioles, 
opposite, with toothed edges or margins. The 
flowers are blue, in whorls in axils of some of 
the middle pairs of leaves. The calyx is equally 
five-toothed. Corolla has a four-cleft border, 
upper lobe a little broader, sometimes notched at 
the end. There are four stamens, nearly equal 
and similar. The one pistil has a two-lobed 
stigma. The fruit is four-parted, like four little 
nuts or akenes, each containing one seed. 



186 




WILD MINT 



JULY — OCTOBER 



You knew that this 
plant belonged to 
the Mint Family 
when you first found 
it growing beside the 
little brook that 
crossed and re- 
crossed the 
meadow. You 
had found other 
members of the 
family so many 
times that you 
felt sure that this was a 
cousin when you saw the 

187 



188 WILD MINT 

square stem and opposite leaves with 
flowers in whorls between. It had a 
pleasant minty fragrance, too, — so you 
asked Father what kind of Mint this was. 
He was pleased that you had recognized 
the plant, and told you that it was Wild 
Mint. Along this brook you found several 
other plants of the same kind, and also a 
quantity of Spearmint, the leaves of which 
are so aromatic. 

You had such a delightful walk that 
day, — you had taken the electric car 
way out to a little country town miles 
and miles from your home, then walked 
out still farther on a very pretty road. 
Up and down it went over little hills 
and valleys, then across bridges, where 
you stopped and looked down at the 
brooks peacefully flowing along over 
shining pebbles, the water quite deep, but 



WILD MINT 189 

clear as crystal ; then on to where the 
road was shaded by willows, inviting one 
to rest and look about, for here on either 
side the wide meadows stretched, beauti- 
ful with the masses of Goldenrod, Joe 
Pye, and little clumps of shrubs and baby 
trees. Here the brook crossed, as one 
could see by the luxuriant growth of 
shrubs and plants ; over there in the 
shadow of the trees gleamed the splendid 
Cardinal Flower, and as far as the eye 
could see was spread out this wonderful 
garden of Mother Nature. You begged 
Father to let you run along by the side 
of the brook, and it was here that you 
found the Wild Mint, as well as a host of 
other treasures. You hated to leave this 
charming spot, but this day of days had 
to come to an end at last, though you 
have never forgotten the joy of it. 



DODDER 

Dodder Family Cuscuta Gronovii 

Convolvulus Family (Gray) 

JULY — AUGUST 

Gkows on herbs and low shrubs. Stems are 
yellow or orange, slender, high-climbing, fastened 
to plant, on which they are parasitic, by num- 
bers of tiny suckers. Leaves reduced to scales. 
Flowers numerous, in dense cymes. Calyx lobes 
ovate, shorter than corolla tube. Corolla bell- 
shaped, lobes rounded, spreading, nearly as long 
as the tube. The stamens are alternate with the 
lobes of the corolla, filaments short and slender. 
The styles are slender, stigmas with, tops like 
pin-heads. The capsule, or seed pod, is short, 
pointed, somewhat round. 



190 



DODDER 




JULY — AUGUST 

One day when you were in 
the canoe with Father, you 
saw so many shrubs and 
bushes all along the 
river bank almost cov- 
ered with long twining 
threads of orange color. 
Look, look, Father," 
you cried, " some one 
has tied the bushes 
all together with 
string." Father 
smiled, and took 
you closer to the 
bank, when you 



192 DODDER 

saw that the threads were growing plants, 
yet they did not seem to belong to the 
bushes they were on. You knew that 
Button-bush did not have orange stems 
anyway, and yet many of these bushes 
were twined round and round by the 
threads. In the sun they looked almost 
like wires of copper or bright gold. 
Here and there were bunches of small 
white flowers, not very interesting, or as 
pretty as the stems. 

You were surprised and disgusted to 
hear that these plants lived by taking 
sap from the bushes and shrubs round 
which they twined. Indeed, they clung 
so closely that it was impossible to get 
a piece of the Dodder without taking 
some of the bush as well. You thought 
they were very mean plants to steal sap 
from bushes, and for a while you didn't 



DODDER 193 

even want to look at the pretty orange 
stems. 

It was a surprise to you to hear that 
Dodder belongs to the same family as 
your Morning Glories, which are rather 
better behaved cousins, though their 
tendrils cling, too, to everything within 
reach. 



PAKTRIDGE PEA 

Senna Family Cassia Chamcecrista 

Pulse Family (Gray) 

JULY — SEPTEMBER 

In dry soil. Erect, or spreading, widely 
branched. Leaves of from ten to twenty 
pairs of leaflets, linear oblong, or the upper 
ones lance-shaped, sensitive. Flowers, from two 
to four together in the axils, yellow, some of 
the petals often purple-spotted, pedicels slender. 
The teeth of the calyx are nearly equal, gen- 
erally longer than the tube. The corolla is 
nearly regular, with five spreading petals. The 
seeds are numerous. 



194 



PARTRIDGE PEA 



JULY — SEPTEMBER 



The path that begins 
by the railroad track, ^ 
almost at the edge 
of the high, gravelly 
bank, and then winds de- 
lightfully in and out among 
the trees, is 
where you 
most often find 
the Partridge Pea. You 
are fond of the bright yellow 
flowers and the pretty, deli- 
cate leaves that have a way 
of folding like a fan if one 
handles them too roughly. 

195 




196 PARTRIDGE PEA 

You never have been able to see any re- 
semblance in this flower to any other Pea 
blossom, but you notice that the pods are 
long, containing many seeds, so you are 
satisfied that Partridge Pea is a very good 
name for the plant. How often you have 
seen it along this dear path that has so 
many surprises. When you follow it you 
pass the most fairylike little ravines, 
down through which you get glimpses of 
the water, — and suddenly are at the 
very edge of a high bank that slopes 
down to the prettiest little pond imagi- 
nable. What a temptation it is to leave 
the path here and scramble down through 
underbrush and between trees — down, 
down to the water's edge — then what a 
delight to walk along, skirting the pond ! 
Here, in the spring, one passes through 
arches of Wild Azalea, great masses of 



PARTRIDGE PEA 197 

these deliriously fragrant flowers. Isn't 
this a joy to be remembered all the year? 

Then going on, you come to a big 
spreading tree with branches invitingly 
near the ground, promising a resting- 
place where you can recover your breath, 
for it must be confessed that in some 
places the tiny path is hard to follow, 
being overgrown by shrubs, and bushes, 
and briers, that have a way of clutching 
at one who passes. 

Black Birch trees offer you refreshment 
by the way, and you nibble bits of the 
spicy bark while taking your rest. Up 
and down the path goes now, sometimes 
making you cling to branches and roots 
of trees for support, and again leading 
you to the dearest little beaches where 
fairies might enjoy the bathing, and you 
can imagine fleets of tiny boats sent out. 



JEWEL WEED 

Jewel-Weed Family Impatiens biflora 

Geranium Family (Gray) Impatiens fulva 

JULY— OCTOBER 

Found in moist grounds. Comes up from 
seed every year, branched, from two to five feet 
high. The leaves are thin, ovate, or with both 
ends evenly rounded, pale and glaucous beneath, 
coarsely toothed, petioles slender. Flowers hori- 
zontal, hanging from pedicels, orange-yellow, 
mottled with reddish brown. Calyx of three 
sepals, two side ones small, green, nerved, upper 
one petal-like, sac-shaped, spurred. Corolla of 
five petals, or three, with two of them two-cleft 
into lobes that are not alike. There are five 
stamens with short filaments more or less 
united. Pistil with a short style, or none, and 
five-toothed stigma. Fruit, a pod which bursts 
when touched, discharging the seeds. 

198 




JEWEL WEED 



JULY — OCTOBER 



One of the walks you like 
best to take is 
along the road, 
at one end of 
which are beauti- 
ful willow trees, 
almost meeting 
overhead. Be- 
yond, the road is somewhat 
dusty, and on sunny days very 
hot, but under the willows one 
always finds cool shade, and it is 
a most delightful resting-place. 
On both sides of the road are little 

199 



200 JEWEL WEED 

ditches, with tiny brooklets singing their 
way along so gently that one must stop 
and listen intently to hear them at all. 
Along here are bushes hung with the 
brilliant flowers of Jewel Weed, looking 
like the ear-drops of some fastidious 
Eastern princess, so jewel-like and splen- 
did in color are they. Each one hangs 
from its stem lightly, so that a touch will 
set it in motion, just as the old-fashioned 
ear-drops belonging to Grandmother shake 
when you take them up by the wires. 

Jewel Weed is not a new friend; you 
have known it a long time, and often 
have found it growing almost in the river 
when Father has taken you out in the 
canoe. You are never tired of the 
flowers ; the color pleases your eye and 
you are always delighted to find them. 
Many times you have tried to paint a 



JEWEL WEED 201 

picture of Jewel Weed in your little book, 
but somehow the spots do not look right, 
though you are very particular to paint 
them brown on the yellow flower. Even 
when you count the spots, and make your 
flower exactly like those you have carried 
home from your walk, the brown spots 
have a disagreeable way of spreading, so 
that your painted flower looks like a mud 
pie, or a very much freckled yellow cat, 
or something equally unlike your idea of 
Jewel Weed. 



JEWEL WEED 

Where the brooks stray through the 

meadow 
By alders shaded deep, 
There dwells a woodland goddess 
Who seems a watch to keep 
O'er the waters clear as crystal 
(The mirror of the trees), 
As she holds her tiny pictures 
While swaying in the breeze. 

To her guest in black and yellow, 
The roving honey-bee, 
She offers wild-wood nectar, 
Saying, " Quaff ; it is for thee ! " 
Though she loves secluded places, 
She is a shy coquette, 

202 



JEWEL WEED 203 

Swinging tiny golden pictures 
By stream or meadow wet. 

She brooks not condescension 
From mortal hand, you know, 
For, touch her e'er so gently, 
Impatiently she'll throw 
Her tiny little jewels, 
Concealed in pockets small 
Of her dainty, graceful garment, 
And o'er the ground they fall. 

Her tiny magic jewels 
May be a fairy's gift, 
For scattered by the brook side 
They soon small leaflets lift. 
What mortal knows the secrets 
Of Flora's children shy, 
Concealed in field and meadow, 
That with the flowers die ? 

— Ray Laurance. 



HARDHACK 

Rose Family Spircea tomentosa 

JULY — SEPTEMBER 

Common in low grounds ; two to three feet 
high. The stem is downy or woolly, leafy. 
The leaves are ovate or oblong, with serrate or 
toothed edges ; they are downy on the under 
side. The rose-color flowers are crowded into 
very dense clusters, called panicles, at the top of 
the stem. The calyx is open and short, usually 
five-cleft, and does not enclose the pod. The 
petals are equal and broad. There are from ten 
to twenty stamens ; the pistils are downy. The 
fruit consists of little pods with several seeds in 
each. 



204 



HAKDHACK 

Steeplebush 
JULY — SEPTEMBER 

A long, long meadow, 
so big that one end of it 
is " Boston' 7 and the 
other "New York," you 
think of when you see 
Hardhack. All along 
the stone wall it grows, 
in among the masses 
of Goldenrod, its pink 
spires pointing up like 
rosy fingers to the blue 
sky. It is a very old 
and dear friend of yours, 




205 



206 HARDHACK 

dearer still because it grows in your 
favorite meadow. In the centre of this 
meadow stands the big haystack, home 
of millions of crickets, it seems to you, 
for you cannot touch the hay without 
bringing out one hundred or more mem- 
bers of the cricket family to see what is 
happening. You are on the best of 
terms with them, and do not object to 
their being so near, as long as they do 
not crawl into your ears — to which you 
have a most serious objection. But the 
haystack is your joy — what a delight- 
ful place to hide things in, digging out 
handfuls of the hay, and stuffing it 
back carelessly after your treasures are 
hidden. What surprises you find some- 
times ! One day you accidentally discov- 
ered a long-lost bean bag which the hay 
storehouse had kept for you in good con- 




HARDHACK 



HARDHACK 207 

dition, quite unlike that of another bean 
bag that had, by some mistake, been left 
out in the rain. 

Sometimes you dress the hay up with 
Goldenrod, and Asters, and Hardhack, — 
then how gay it looks. The thickly 
clustered flowers of Steeplebush are 
most attractive to you; they are a very 
pretty shade of pink, and have such a 
feathery look. The leaves and stem 
are quite woolly, and you don't really 
like the feeling of them any more than 
that of a peach, which puts your teeth 
on edge. 

How often the trains run from " New 
York" to "Boston," with " Haymarket " 
the most approved stopping place be- 
tween. Many times the trains run off 
the track, but as yet no serious acci- 
dent has occurred. 



SPIILEA 

About half-buried boulders, overgrown 
With cold gray lichens, and with patches 

round 
Of yellow moss set in concentric rings 
Upon rough surface of the weathered 

stone, 
There stubborn Hardhack bold disputes 

the ground 
With creeping vine, and to its refuge 

clings. 

Not fed upon by browsing herd, 
Protection only claiming from the hoof, 
And having this from pasture-rock and 

wall ; 
Retreat well noticed by sagacious bird, 

208 



SPIR.EA 209 

Whose nest has Hardback leafage for its 

roof, 
And close, rose-tinted racemes over all. 

Among wild native bushes, creeping fast 
O'er our neglected fields and pastures 

bare, 
How frequent is the blooming Hardhack 

met ! 
Its fragrance breathing of a happier past, 
When, in the mother-land, with thought- 
ful care, 
A favored shrub, 'twas in the hedgerows 
set! 

— Isaac Bassett Choate. 



TANSY 

Thistle Family Tanacetum vulgare 

Composite Family (Gray) 

JULY— SEPTEMBER 

Along roadsides, mostly escaped from gar- 
dens. The stem is stout, usually simple up to 
the flower clusters. Leaves are divided into 
many deeply and irregularly cut lobes. Flower- 
heads are numerous, strongly aromatic, yellow, 
in corymbs. The receptacle is flat. The mar- 
ginal corollas have short, oblique, three-toothed 
borders. Disk flowers are perfect ; anthers 
blunt and entire at base, with broad tips. Pap- 
pus a short crown. 



210 



TANSY 




JULY — SEPTEMBER 

Tansy is not a 
favorite of yours, 
and you only 
like to see it in 
the distance, where 
its mass of color, 
bright golden, is 
like a bit of sun- 
shine, no mat- 
ter how gray 
the day. Way 
down at the end 
of the lane at 
Grandmother's is a big 
211 



212 TANSY 

bed of Tansy, that many people have 
mistaken in the distance for Goldenrod, 
it is so brilliant. 

What queer flower-heads this plant has, 
like Daisy centres without ray flowers, 
most uninteresting in your eyes, and it 
seems to you as though the flowers were 
only half finished. You do not like the 
smell of Tansy ; it is very strong, and you 
think that the Tansy tea Grandmother 
has told you about must have been most 
disagreeable to take. She said that her 
Mother used to make this tea for medi- 
cine ; and then how glad you are that 
you didn't live in those days, and that 
the medicine you sometimes have to take 
seems more like candy pills than anything 
as disagreeable and bitter as Tansy tea. 

You would like to have seen the large 
bed of Tansy that Grandmother had when 



TANSY 213 

she was a little girl. Her Mother's gar- 
den must have been the most charming 
place in the world, with its wealth of 
Hollyhocks, Peonies, Snapdragon, Fox- 
glove, and all the other beautiful flowers 
that grew there in such profusion. How 
you would like to have seen the old sun- 
dial, and the Box-bordered walks leading 
to delightful little summer-houses. 

You love the smell of Box, and at an 
old, old house where you have been sev- 
eral times there is the most enchanting 
old garden imaginable, with, originally, 
numbers of Box-bordered paths. Now 
the Box has grown so high and so thick 
that in many places the paths are quite 
covered, and it is almost impossible for 
even you to squeeze through. But how 
delicious the air is with the spicy, inde- 
scribable fragrance of Box ! 



CHICORY 

Chicory Family Cichorium Intybus 

Composite Family (Gray) 

JULY— OCTOBER 

Roadsides, fields, and waste places. Deep 
tap-root, from which the plants come up year 
after year. The stems are slightly bristly, stiff, 
with many branches. The leaves from base 
spread on the ground, narrow into long petioles. 
The upper leaves are much smaller. Flower- 
heads are numerous, one to four together in clus- 
ters without stalks, on nearly naked branches. 
They are bright blue, pinkish, or white. The 
receptacle is flat. The rays are five-toothed, and 
as if cut off at top. Anthers are shaped like 
arrow-heads at the base. Branches of the style 
are slender. Akenes are five-angled or five- 
ribbed. 

214 



CHICORY 



JULY — OCTOBER 



What pretty, em- 




pale blue stars 
these are all over 
the meadow that 
slopes down to the 
beach. It looks to 
you as though a bit of 
the sky had fallen, break- 
ing into a million stars 
in its descent, as a rocket 
showers the heavens with 
its stars of fire. Chicory 
is a dear friend indeed, and 
you are always glad to greet it 
wherever you find it growing, 
along roadsides, in fields and mead- 
ows, even along by the railroad 

215 



216 CHICORY 

track, where the train whizzes you by so 
fast that the Chicory seems like shooting 
stars. Best of all, you love to find this 
friend in the little meadow by the beach, 
and all around the tiny cottage where 
you have spent delightful summers. 

Close at hand is an old-fashioned gar- 
den, truly a wealth of beauty, each flower 
growing wherever it chooses to come up 
out of the ground — a happy tangle of 
flowers gorgeous to behold. Isn't it a de- 
light to be allowed to walk among them, 
almost making your own path as you 
go, the original walks are so overgrown ? 
Somehow, Chicory never quite gets into 
this garden, though it stands just outside 
the fence, where one can imagine it look- 
ing in wistfully at the gayety, and longing 
to join the happy party, but kept out 
by the stern hand of the garden's owner, 



CHICORY 217 

who has a horror of " weeds." The flow- 
ers of Chicory are dear to you, though 
you wish they would not have such a 
"raggedy" way of growing on the stem, 
making it impossible to gather them into 
a respectable bouquet. Though your gar- 
den is not so splendid or fine as the 
neighboring one, you are very proud of 
your Goldenrod and Chicory, and even of 
the Burdock, from the burrs of which you 
can make such dear little chairs and 
tables for your dolls, though they have a 
most unpleasant way of sticking to one's 
clothes unless the utmost care is taken. 
Once you found one of these burrs entan- 
gled in your hair, and you have never 
forgotten how^ hard it was to get out. 



CARDINAL FLOWER 

Bellflower Family Lobelia cardinalis 

Lobelia Family (Gray) 

JULY— SEPTEMBER 

In moist soil. Stem slightly downy or nearly 
smooth, two to four and one-half feet high. The 
leaves are thin, wide, pointed at both ends, with 
edges cut into fine teeth ; lower leaves with 
petioles, upper without. The flowers are in ra- 
cemes, bright red. The lobes of the calyx are 
long and pointed. The corolla tube is long, two- 
lipped, lobe on each side of the cleft erect or 
curved backwards, turned away from the other 
three, which are somewhat united. The sta- 
mens are free from corolla tube, but united into 
a tube or ring around the style. Three of the 
five anthers are usually larger than the other 
two. The stigma is two-lobed. 

218 




CARDINAL FLOWER 

JULY — SEPTEMBER 

As you pass the 

little brook a flash of 

red catches your eye, 

and you turn around 

to see the Cardinal 

Flower in all its 

splendor. Tall 

and with stately grace 

it stands by the water's edge, 

near enough to be perfectly 

mirrored on the 

clear surface. 

Somehow you don't 

feel like clapping your 

219 



220 CARDINAL FLOWER 

hands in its presence, but you catch your 
breath and stand drinking in the beauty 
of it. The brilliant flowers among the 
green rushes, with a background of trees 
i# all shades of green, make a picture 
that you carry home in your mind, and 
see again after you are tucked into your 
little bed. You wonder why you remem- 
ber these bright red flowers longer than 
any other of your flower friends. You 
really do not feel as well acquainted with 
them, — and yet the picture stays with 
you. 

Do you remember the time that Father 
took you in a canoe up the little river, 
and you first had the opportunity to get 
very close to the splendid Cardinal Flow- 
ers? How delighted you were; but you 
hardly dared break one of the long stems. 
How wonderful the reflection was in the 




CARDINAL FLOWER 



CARDINAL FLOWER 221 

river! The water looked very dark, al- 
most black, with a greenish tinge where 
the trees were reflected, and the beautiful 
red flowers looking up at you were exactly 
like the ones on the shore. 

Many flowers grow on one stem, so that 
each one is a charming mass of color. 
The flowers have five lobes to the corolla, 
two standing up like horns, and three 
hanging downwards, shaped something 
like your fingers. The Cardinal Flower 
belongs to the Bellflower Family, and has 
several relatives. One of them is called 
Venus' Looking Glass. Isn't that a pretty 
name ? Would you like to find some of 
these flowers? 



SWAMP ROSE MALLOW 

Mallow Family Hibiscus Moscheutos 

AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 

In brackish marshes and along rivers. Three 
to seven feet high, downy. The leaves are ovate, 
pointed, often three-lobed, downy underneath, 
but usually smooth on the top surface. The 
flower-stalks are slender. Flowers large, four 
to six inches broad, showy, rose-pink in color, 
with a darker centre sometimes. The calyx has 
five true sepals, with several bracts outside, look- 
ing like an outer calyx. The corolla consists of 
five petals. The stamens are numerous, on a 
tube which is connected with the base of the 
petals. The pistil has five branches of the style, 
with flat tops like pinheads. The pod is five- 
celled, each cell many-seeded. 



222 



SWAMP ROSE MALLOW 

AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 

The river was very still the morning 
that Father took you in the canoe away up 




near the big 

bridge which 

you had driven 

over many times but not paddled 



223 



224 SWAMP ROSE MALLOW 

under. This day, joy of joys, Father let 
you take the paddle, and you had the 
most delightful time, sending the canoe 
first to one side, then the other. As you 
approached the bridge, you saw for the 
first time the beautiful pink blossoms of 
Swamp Eose Mallow towering up above 
the rushes just the other side of the 
bridge. You thought it was Hollyhock, 
and wondered who had planted a garden 
by the river, but Father told you it was 
Swamp Rose Mallow, a cousin of Holly- 
hock, and also of the Marsh Mallow that 
makes such delicious candy. What a 
treasure this was to find ! In your eager- 
ness and excitement you quite forgot how 
to paddle, and would have bumped into 
the bridge, and in all probability tumbled 
into the river, if Father had not been right 
there to guide the paddle. Soon you 



SWAMP ROSE MALLOW 225 

passed under the bridge, and found a 
good place for the canoe to stay while 
Father picked one or two of the beautiful 
blossoms for you. What a delight it was 
to hold them in your hands and drink in 
the beauty of color. You were much in- 
terested in the arrangement of stamens 
and pistils, like pins of different sizes 
stuck into a long cushion. The stigmas 
or tops of the pistils particularly, looked 
like flat pinheads, and they were much 
larger than the stamens. You counted 
five stigmas, but there were so many sta- 
mens that you could not count them, and 
soon gave up to enjoy the beauty of the 
whole flower. 



JOE-PYE WEED 

Thistle Family Eupatorium purpureum 

Composite Family (Gray) 

AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 

Found in moist soil. Simple, or branched at 
top. The stem is green or purple, marked with 
grooves or stripes. The leaves are thin, petioled, 
toothed, whorled in threes or sixes. Flower- 
heads numerous, pink or purple. Involucre 
cylindric. The corolla is regular, with slender 
tube, its border, or limb, five-lobed, or five- 
toothed. Anthers blunt and entire at base. 
Akenes are five-angled. Pappus of numerous 
hair-like bristles in one row. 



226 



JOE-PYE WEED 



AUGUST — SEPTEMBER 




Oh, the dear mead- 
ows, and the little 
lane just massed 
with Goldenrod and 
Asters, and sometimes 
big flower-heads of a 
peculiar purplish 
color ! Do you re- 
member how funny 
you thought it 
when Father 
told you their 
name was Joe 
Pye? You 



227 



228 JOE-PYE WEED 

thought they must make very queer pie, 
and really wondered how people cooked 
them. How you learned to love their 
rough, ragged-looking heads, and how 
beautiful the meadows looked to you 
when they were bright with Goldenrod 
and Joe Pye in the late summer. Joe 
Pye never looked very friendly; you 
liked to see him in the fields better than 
in your hands with the dear Goldenrod 
and Asters, but you loved him just the 
same and watched for him. 

He stands so very straight and stiff, 
even the wind hardly dares to move him. 
You learn that he is a cousin of the 
Goldenrods, and belongs to the great 
Composite or Thistle Family. He is a 
very independent fellow, and does not 
make friends as readily as some of his 
cousins. One would miss him from the 



JOE-PYE WEED 229 

landscape, though, and we are always 
glad to see him, like a sentinel guarding 
the meadows and roadsides. 

If you look more closely at Joe Pye you 
will see that the flower-top is made up 
of many flowers in thick clusters at the 
end of branches almost like a little tree. 
This arrangement of flowers is called a 
Corymb, you remember, as you have found 
so many flowers grouped in the same way. 



LADY'S TRESSES 



e 



Orchja Family Spiranthes cernua 

Gyrostachys cernua 

AUGUST — OCTOBER 

Found in wet meadows and swamps. Leaves 
nearly from the base, long and narrow blade. 
Flowers white, fragrant, in thick twisted spike, 
in three rows. Side sepals free, upper arching, 
and connivent with petals, lip oblong or some- 
times ovate, with broad tip crisped or scalloped 
into rounded teeth. Anther without a lid, on 
the back of the style. Ovate stigma on the 
front. There are two pollen-masses, each parted 
into two thin plates, their summits united to the 
back of a narrow, boat-shaped gland set in the 
beaked tip over the stigma. 



280 



LADY'S TRESSES 

AUGUST — OCTOBER 

Close by the edge of a little 
pond you found these fragrant, 
exquisitely dainty flowers. How 
curiously they seemed to twist 
around the stem so that they 
looked as though they were on 
all sides of a braid of green. 
How you hunted all along the 
way for more, and what a 
pleasure it was to find one 
after another of these spikes of 
delicate white flowers ! 

It was a perfect day, the 
pond was beautiful in color, 
and your walk around the edge 

281 

f 



232 LADY'S TRESSES 

was a joy, rewarded with many precious 
finds, for numbers of your flower friends 
were there waiting to greet you, but none 
gave you more pleasure than this shy, 
delicate little Orchid that you came upon 
unexpectedly. You wondered why it 
was called Lady's Tresses, and were told 
that the original name was Lady's Traces, 
because of a fancied resemblance to the 
lacings called "traces" in the olden time. 
You like the name "tresses" better, and 
think it a good name, for does not the 
braid of flowers remind you of the tresses 
of a fairy princess? You imagine it the 
braid of Rapunzel, twined with flowers 
and let down from the high tower to form 
a ladder for the fairy prince, — and you 
think how delightful it would be if you 
could find a flower like this, tall enough 
and strong enough for you to climb up on 



LADY'S TRESSES 233 

to the top of the high water-tower, for 
you are sure that in there a fairy princess 
is hidden. Many times you have stood 
at the foot and wished for some way to 
reach the top so that you might see if it 
really was an enchanted tower. Some- 
times when the wind blows you im- 
agine you hear the voice of the princess 
singing, but she seems to be very quiet 
when the air is still. 



LADY'S TRESSES 

When summer flowers have shut their 

sunny eyes, 
And summer birds to summer lands are 

flown ; 
When crickets chant their drowsy mono- 
tone, 
And sadly through the pines the south 

wind sighs ; 
When over hill and plain in lavish tides 
The Goldenrod its garnered sunshine 

sheds, 
And Asters, white and purple, nod their 

heads, 
And seem to say, " Naught that is fair 

abides ! " 
Ah, then in shady lane and grassy field, 

284 



LADY'S TRESSES 235 

What new delight thy slender spires to 

find, 
With tress of hyacinthine bells entwined ! 
Fragrance like thine no rose of June can 

yield ; 
No Lily can eclipse thy snow, dear prize, 
Flung backward by sweet summer as she 

tiles. — Emily Shaw Forman. 



FRINGED GENTIAN 

Gentian Family Gentiana Crinita 

SEPTEMBER — OCTOBER 

Found in low grounds. The stems are some- 
times branching. Leaves are opposite, without 
leafstalks, lance-shaped or broader, with rounded 
or heart-shaped base. Flowers sky-blue, solitary 
on long flower-stalks. Calyx with four unequal 
lobes. Corolla funnel-form, with four wedge 
obovate lobes cut into delicate, long fringe at the 
margins. There are four stamens, opposite the 
lobes of the corolla, anthers straight. Pistil with 
a short style or none, two stigmas which remain 
after fruit is formed. The pod is oblong, con- 
taining innumerable small seeds. 



FRINGED GENTIAN 



SEPTEMBER— OCTOBER 




It was 
on one 
of the 
most perfect 
September days 
that you were tak- 
ing a walk with 
Nurse, down across 
the meadows to 
the beach. You loved this 
walk, for one was always 
sure to find some new treasure, 
and flowers seemed to bloom 
there all the year round. Down 
near the marsh this wonderful 

237 



238 FRINGED GENTIAN 

day you found the exquisite blue Gentian, 
each petal daintily fringed. What a beau- 
tiful bit of color, — your joy was beyond 
words, for you had never seen a flower 
before of such an intense blue, " heavenly 
blue" you called it. You knew Gentian 
very well by name, for had not Mother 
often recited a poem to you about it 
which you loved to hear? Now, you had 
found the flowers for yourself, and it was 
a rare treat. With what eagerness you 
gathered a handful of the lovely blos- 
soms to take home, and planned in your 
mind to come here every year in Septem- 
ber to gather more. Mother told you, 
however, that Gentian was what might 
be called a wandering plant, because it 
does not bloom every year in the same 
place, and quite likely another year you 
would not find it at all down by the 




FRINGED GENTIAN 



FRINGED GENTIAN 239 

marsh. You will always be glad to wel- 
come it wherever you find it, and will 
look eagerly every year in the moist 
fields and meadows as you take your 
walks. 

THE FRINGED GENTIAN 

Thou blossom bright with autumn dew, 
And colored with the heaven's own blue, 
Thou openest when the quiet light 
Succeeds the keen and frosty night. 

Thou comest not when Violets lean 
O'er wandering brooks and springs un- 
seen, 
Or Columbines in purple dressed 
Nod o'er the ground-bird's hidden nest. 

Thou waitest late and com'st alone, 
When woods are bare and birds are flown, 



240 THE FRINGED GENTIAN 

And the frosts and shortening days por- 
tend 
The aged year is near his end. 

Then doth thy sweet and quiet eye 
Look through its fringes to the sky, 
Blue — blue — as if that sky let fall 
A flower from its cerulean wall. 

I would that thus, when I shall see 
The hour of death draw near to me, 
Hope, blossoming within my heart, 
May look to heaven as I depart. 

— William Cullen Bryant. 







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